THE  RENAISSANCE 

THE  REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING  AND  ART  IN  THE  FOURTEENTH 
AND  FIFTEENTH  CENTURIES 


THE   RENAISSANCE. 


THE  REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING  AND  ART  IN  THE  FOURTEENTH 
AND  FIFTEENTH  CENTURIES. 

BY  PHILIP  jSCHAFF,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
Professor  of  Church  History,  Union  Theological  Seminary,  N.  Y. 


CHAPTER  I. 

LITERATURE   OF   THE   RENAISSANCE. 

See  an  alphabetical  list  of  the  Renaissance  literature  down  to  1881  in  Voigt's 
Wiederbelebung  des  class,  Alterthums,  II.,  517-529  ;  and  a  long  list  including 
the  literature  on  the  papacy  of  that  period  in  Pastor's  Geschichte  der  Papste 
(1886  sqq.),  I.,  xxiv.-xlvi.,  and  II.,  xxv.-xlvii.  Geiger  adds  literary  notices  to 
his  Renaissance  und  Humanismus  (1882),  pp.  564  sqq, 

I. — ORIGINAL  AUTHORITIES. 

L.  A.  Muratori  (b.  at  Modena,  1672,  librarian  of  the  Ambrosian  library  at 
Milan,  1695,  d.  1750):  Rerum  Italicarum  Scriptores  ab  anno  (era  Christ, 
quingentesimo  ad millesimum  quingentesimum,  Mediol.,  1723-'$!,  25  vols.,  fol., 
with  supplemental  vols.  (ab  anno  millesimo  ad  millesimum  sexcentesimum), 
Florentise,  1748  and  1770,  and  Accessiones  histories  Faventina,  Venet.,  1771. 
In  all,  31  parts.  Tom.  XV.  contains  an  alphabetical  list  of  the  authors  in  this 
vast  collection,  some  of  whom  belong  to  the  Renaissance  period. 

Girolamo  Tiraboschi  (a  Jesuit,  and  librarian  of  the  Duke  of  Modena,  d. 
1794)  :  Storia  della  Letteratura  Italiana,  Roma,  i782-'85,  9  vols.  in  13  parts, 
4to.  Vol.  IX.,  pp.  125-366,  contains  the  topical  index.  Vol.  V.  treats  of 
Dante,  Boccaccio,  and  Petrarca.  Comp.  also  Vol.  VI.,  P.  I.,  pp.  155  sqq. 
(Scoprimento  d'Antichita),  and  Vol.  VI.,  P.  II.,  pp.  -2.\<)sqq.  (Poesia  Latina, 
etc.).  The  first  edition  appeared  at  Modena,  i77i-'82,  13  vols.,  a  new  one  at 
Milan,  l822-'26,  in  16  vols. 

The  works  of  Dante,  Petrarca,  Boccaccio,  Poggio,  Valla,  and  ^Eneas  Sylvius, 
see  below. 


4  The  Renaissance, 

II. — MODERN  WORKS. 

Humphrey  Hody  (Prof,  at  Oxford) :  De  Greeds  illustribus  Lingua  Gr<zc<z 
Literarumque  humaniorwn  instauratoribus,  London,  1742.  A  posthumous 
work  published  by  Dr.  Jebb. 

Meiners  :  Lebensbeschreibungen  beriihmier  Manner  aus  den  Zeiten  der  Wie- 
derherstellung  der  Wis  sense  ha f ten,  Zurich,  1795— '97,  3  vols. 

Heeren  :  Geschichte  der  classischen  Lit.  seit  der  Wiederaufiebung  der  Wis- 
senschaften,  Gottingen,  1797-1802,  2  vols.  ;  new  ed.  in  his  Hist.  Works,  Parts 
IV.  and  V.,  G5tt.,  1822. 

Erhard :  Gesch.  des  Aufbliihens  ivissensch.  Bildung,  vornehmlich  in 
Deutschland  bis  zum  An  fang  der  Reformation,  Magdeburg,  i827-*32,  3  vols. 

Wm.  Roscoe  (1753-1831)  :  The  Life  of  Lorenzo  de  Medici,  called  the  Mag- 
nificent, Liverpool  (London),  1796,  and  repeatedly  reprinted  and  translated 
into  French,  German,  and  Italian.  The  Life  and  Pontificate  of  Leo  X.,  Lon- 
don, 1805,  and  often  since.  German  transl.  by  Henke,  with  notes,  Leipzig, 
1806,  3  vols.  ;  Italian  transl.  by  Luigi  Bossi,  Milano,  1816,  with  valuable 
appendices.  The  Italian  ed.  was  placed  on  the  Index. 

J.  Ch.  L.  Sismondi  (1773-1842)  :  Histoire  des  Republiques  Italiennes,  Paris, 
I8o7-'i8,  5th  ed.  i84O-'44,  10  vols.  (English  translation,  London,  1832),  and 
Histoire  de  la  renaissance  de  la  liberte1  en  Italic,  1832,  2  vols. 

Jules  Michelet  (1798-1874) :  Renaissance,  the  7th  vol.  of  his  Histoire  de 
France,  Paris,  1867. 

Ad.  Franck  (Membre  de  1'Institut)  :  Re'formateurs  et Publicistes  de  V Europe. 
Moyen  Age  Renaissance,  Paris,  1864.  Sketches  of  Dante,  Marsilius  of 
Padua,  Occam,  Savonarola. 

*  Jacob  Burckhardt  (Prof,  in  Basel) :  Die  Cultur  der  Renaissance  in  Italien, 
Basel,  1860;  2ded.,  revised,  Leipzig  (Seemann),  1869;  3d  ed.  by  L.  Geiger, 
1878,  in  2  vols.  A  series  of  philosophico-historical  sketches  on  the  six  aspects 
of  the  Italian  Renaissance,  namely,  the  new  conception  of  the  state,  the  devel- 
opment of  the  individual,  the  revival  of  science,  the  discovery  of  the  world  and 
of  man,  the  new  formation  of  society,  and  the  transformation  of  morals  and 
religion.  An  excellent  English  translation  by  S.  G.  C.  Middlemore  from  the 
3d  ed.  (The  Civilization  of  the  Renaissance  in  Italy,  London  and  New  York, 
Macmillan,  1890,  559  pp.).  Italian  translation  by  Diego  Valbusa  of  Mantua. 
Burckhardt  wrote  also  (in  connection  with  W.  Liibke),  Geschichte  der  Renais- 
sance in  Italien,  Stuttgart,  1868  ;  2d  ed.,  1878,  with  180  illustrations,  chiefly 
on  architecture  and  sculpture,  to  complete  Kugler's  Geschichte  der  Baukunst. 
Comp.  also  his  Cicerone ;  Anleitung  zum  Genuss  der  Kunst-werke  Italiens,  4th 
ed.  by  Bode,  Leipzig,  1879;  5th  ed.  1884,  3  vols. 

*Georg  Voigt :  Wiederbelebung  des  classischen  Alterthums  oder  das  erste 
Jahrhundertdes  Humanismus,  1859  ;  2d  ed.,  rewritten,  Berlin,  1880  and  1881, 
2  vols.  Also  his  life  of  Pius  II.  :  Enea  Silvio  de'  Piccolomini,  als  Papst  Pius 
II.  und  sein  Zeitalter,  Berlin,  1856- '63,  3  vols. 

T.  D.  Woolsey  (late  Pres.  of  Yale  College,  d.  1889) :  The  Revival  of  Letters 
in  the  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Centuries.  A  series  of  valuable  articles  in  the 
line  of  Voigt's  first  ed.,  in  the  "New  Englander,"  New  Haven,  Conn.,  for 
1864  and  1865. 


Literature  of  the  Renaissance.  5 

*Ferd.  Gregorovius:  Geschichte  der  Stadt  Rom  im  Mittelatter  vom.  V.  bis 
turn  XVI,  Jahrh.  (1859),  4th  revised  ed.,  Stuttgart  (Cotta),  1886  sqq.,  8  vols. 
See  Vols.  VI.-VIII. 

Alfred  von  Reumont :  Geschichte  der  Stadt  Rom,  Berlin,  i867-'7O,  3  vols. 
The  3d  vol.,  in  2  parts,  treats  of  Humanism  and  the  Popes  of  the  Renaissance. 
By  the  same  author,  Lorenzo  de'  Medici  il  Magnifico,  Leipzig,  1874  ;  2d  ed., 
revised,  1883,  2  vols. 

Marc  Monnier  :  La  Renaissance  de  Dante  a  Luther,  Paris,  1884  (crowned  by 
the  French  Academy). 

H.  Taine  :  Lectures  on  Art  (First  and  Second  Series)  ;  Italy,  Rome,  and 
Naples ;  Italy,  Florence,  and  Venice.  English  translation  by  John  Durand, 
New  York  (Henry  Holt  &  Co.),  1875  sqq.  The  Second  Series  of  Lectures 
gives  the  philosophy  of  art  in  Italy. 

Fritz  Schultze :  Geschichte  der  Philosophie  der  Renaissance.  Vol.  I.,  Ge. 
Gem.  Pletho  und  seine  reformatorischen  Bestrebungen,  Jena,  1874. 

Pasquale  Villari :  Niccolb  Machiavelli  e  i  suoi  tempi,  Firenze,  1877-1882, 
3  vols.  German  translation  by  Mangold.  Comp.  also  Villari's  La  Storia  di 
Girolamo  Savonarola,  Firenze,  1858 ;  revised  and  enlarged  ed.  1887  and  1888, 
in  2  vols.  (English  translation  by  his  wife,  London,  1888.) 

*  John  Addington  Symonds :  Renaissance  in  Italy,  London  and  New  York 
(H.  Holt  &  Co.),  1877  sqq.  ;  ad,  cheaper  ed.,  1888,  7  vols.     Part  I.,  The  Age 
of  the  Despots;  Part  II. ,    The  Revival  of  Learning;  Part  III.,    The  Fine 
Arts ;  Part  IV.,  Italian  Literature  (2  vols.)  ;  Part  V.,    The  Catholic  Reaction 
(1886,  2  vols).     The  most  complete  English  work  on  the  subject,  and  based 
upon  the  original  sources,  but  somewhat  prolix  and  repetitious.     Geiger  very 
unjustly  calls  it  "  unbedeutend."     Symonds  wrote  the  article,  Renaissance,  in 
the  "Encycl.  Britannica,"  Ed.  IX.,  Vol.  XX.  (1886),  pp.  380-394. 

*Gustav  Koerting  :  Geschichte  der  Litter atur  Italiens  im  Zeitalter  der  Re- 
naissance,  Leipzig  (Reisland),  Vol.  I.,  1878  (Petrarca) ;  Vol.  II.,  1880  (Boc- 
caccio) ;  Vol.  III.,  1884  (the  forerunners  and  founders  of  the  Renaissance; 
this  vol.  should  be  the  first).  The  work  is  to  embrace  6  vols.,  the  last  to  be 
devoted  to  Torquato  Tasso. 

H.  Hettner  :  Italienische  Studien.  Zur  Geschichte  der  Renaissance,  Braun- 
schweig, 1879. 

*  Ludwig  Geiger  (Prof,  in  Berlin)  :  Renaissance  und  Humanismus  in  Italien 
und  Deutschland,  Berlin,  1882  (pp.  585),  with  illustrations.     Part  of  Oncken's 
"Allg.  Geschichte  in  Einzeldarstellungen."     Comp.  his  Neue  Schriften  zur 
Kritik  des  Humanismus,   in   the  "  Historische  Zeitschrift"   for    1874,  pp. 
49-125. 

Preste  Tommasini :  La  vita  e  gli  scritti  di  Nicolb  Machiavelli  nella  loro  re- 
lazione  al  Machiavellismo,  Roma  (Loescher),  1883  sq. 

Mrs.  Oliphant :  The  Makers  of  Florence,  London  (Macmillan  &  Co.),  1888. 
Sketches  of  Dante,  Giotto,  Savonarola,  Michel  Angelo. 

*  Eugene  Mtintz  :  Histoire  de  I' Art  pendant  la  Renaissance,  Paris  (Hachette 
et  Cie.),  1889  sqq.     To  embrace  5  vols.,  each  containing  800  to  900  pages  and 
2,500  engravings. 


6  The  Renaissance. 

III. — WORKS  ON  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  PAPACY  OF  THE  RENAISSANCE 

PERIOD. 

Leop.  von  Ranke  (d.  1886) :  Die  romischen  Pdpste  in  den  letzten  vier  yahrh., 
Leipzig,  3  vols.,  8th  ed.,  1885.  Begins  with  an  introduction  on  the  epochs  of  the 
Papacy,  and  Leo  X. 

Mandell  Creighton  (Professor  of  Church  History  in  Cambridge,  England)  : 
A  History  of  the  Papacy  during  the  Period  of  the  Reformation,  London 
and  New  York,  1882-1887,  4  vols.  The  title  of  this  work  is  misleading,  as  it 
begins  with  1378  and  ends  1518,  i.e.,  the  beginning  of  the  Reformation, 
properly  so  called.  It  is  rather  a  history  of  the  Papacy  in  the  period  of 
the  Renaissance. 

Ludwig  Pastor  (Rom.  Cath.  Prof,  of  History  at  Innsbruck) :  Geschichte  der 
Pdpste  im  Zeitalter  der  Renaissance,  Freiburg  i.  B.  (Herder),  Vol.  I.  1886,  Vol. 
II.,  1889.  A  Roman  Catholic  counterpart  of  Ranke,  based  upon  extensive 
studies  in  the  documentary  sources. 


CHAPTER  II. 

ORIGIN,  CHARACTER,  AND  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  RENAISSANCE. 

The  classical  literature  of  Greece  and  the  law  of  Rome, 
as  well  as  the  Mosaic  religion,  prepared  the  way  for  the 
introduction  and  success  of  Christianity  in  the  old  Roman 
empire.  The  same  literature  and  law  became  educators  of 
the  Latin  and  Teutonic  races  for  modern  civilization. 

The  Italians  took  the  place  of  the  ancient  Greeks,  and 
even  surpassed  them  as  poets  and  artists.  Republican 
Florence  rivalled  and  outshone  Athens  as  a  home  of  genius, 
and  papal  Rome  excelled  imperial  Rome  in  the  liberal 
patronage  of  letters  and  arts. 

The  study  of  the  old  Roman  literature  never  died  out  in  the 
Church.  Latin  was  her  official  language,  and  was  required 
from  every  priest.  The  Benedictine  monks  copied  Virgil, 
Cicero,  Horace,  Donatus,  and  Boetius,  besides  the  works  of  St. 
Augustin,  Jerome,  and  Gregory  I.  The  scholars  at  the  court 
of  Charlemagne,  the  restorer  of  the  Western  Roman  empire, 
showed  considerable  knowledge  of  the  classics,  and  might 
have  brought  on  a  premature  Renaissance,  had  not  the  civil 
wars  under  his  weak  successors  and  the  corruptions  of  the 
papacy  checked  all  progress  for  two  centuries.  Europe 
relapsed  into  barbarism.  The  libraries  of  many  convents 
were  destroyed,  or  scattered,  or  sold  for  charms  or  relics. 
Paper  was  scarce,  and  the  manuscripts  of  ancient  authors, 
and  even  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  were  written  over  (codices 
rescripti)  with  worthless  homilies. 

In  the  twelfth  century  the  love  of  learning  began  to 
revive.  The  Roman  law  was  discovered  and  taught  at 
Bologna.  The  Crusades  widened  the  horizon  and  opened 

7 


8  The  Renaissance. 

to  the  eyes  of  Europe  the  world  of  the  Orient.  Aristotle 
Became  known  through  Latin  translations  made  from  the 
Arabic,  before  he  could  be  read  in  the  original  Greek. 

Collections  of  books  before  the  time  of  Petrarca  and  the 
invention  of  the  printing-press  were  rare,  small,  and  costly. 
They  were  not  used  for  the  cultivation  of  taste,  but  for 
the  practical  purpose  of  learning  Latin  and  reading  mass, 
canon  law,  and  scholastic  theology.  Roger  Bacon  (d.  1294) 
was  twenty-six  years  in  search  for  the  works  of  Seneca,  and 
complained  that  Cicero's  De  Republica  could  not  be  found. 
The  knowledge  of  Greek  and  Hebrew  was  only  fragmentary 
and  confined  to  a  few  scholars.  Dante  (d.  1321),  with  all 
his  encyclopaedic  learning,  which  he  shows  in  the  Convivium 
and  the  Commedia,  knew  scarcely  more  than  a  dozen  Greek 
words,  and  depended  for  his  knowledge  of  the  Bible  on  the 
Latin  Vulgate.  He  called  his  great  epic  and  didactic  poem, 
for  its  vulgar  or  popular  language,  a  comedy,  or  a  village 
poem,  deriving  it  from  Hoopr/,  villa,  without  apparently 
being  aware  of  the  more  probable  derivation  from  XGJ/^OS', 
merry-making.  Petrarca  possessed  a  copy  of  the  Greek 
Homer,  but  could  not  read  it,  though  he  attempted  to  learn 
the  language  from  incompetent  travelling  Greeks. 

Petrarca  opens  the  period  of  search,  discovery,  and  col- 
lection of  ancient  MSS.  and  works  of  art.  He  kindled  a 
passion  for  books,  buildings,  statues,  pictures,  gems.  This 
passion  spread  rapidly  among  sovereigns  and  scholars  in 
every  city  of  Italy.  But  the  mere  discovery  of  books  could 
not  have  produced  a  change.  Books  may  be  a  dead  posses- 
sion, as  the  Bible  was  during  the  Middle  Ages.  With  the 
discovery  of  the  literary  material  went  hand  in  hand  a  new 
intelligence — an  enthusiasm  for  the  ideas  of  the  ancients,  a 
taste  for  general  culture.  Greece  and  Rome  rose,  phoenix- 
like,  from  the  dust  of  antiquity  to  new  life  and  vigor.  Cicero 
once  more  delivered  his  orations  ;  Virgil  sang  his  ^Eneid  ; 
Homer,  his  Iliad  and  Odyssey  ;  Plato  taught  philosophy ;  the 
gods  of  Greece  became  apostles  of  the  worship  of  beauty. 

The  newly  discovered  ancient  civilization  was  transfused 
with  the  spirit  of  mediseval  Christianity.  From  these  two 


Origin,  Character,  and  Influence  of  the  Renaissance.        9 

sources  arose  a  great  literary  and  artistic  movement,  a  new 
type  of  civilization,  which  aimed  at  an  aesthetic  transforma- 
tion of  man  and  a  universal  and  harmonious  development  of 
personal  character.  Hence  the  terms  humanism  and  human- 
ists, from  literce  humana  or  humaniores,  the  more  humane 
studies,  the  literature  that  humanizes. 

This  literary  and  artistic  movement  extended  from  the 
beginning  of  the  fourteenth  to  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  It  is  variously  styled  the  Revival  of  Letters, 
the  Age  of  Humanism,  by  the  French  term  Renaissance,  and 
the  Italian  Rinascimento.  In  the  widest  sense  the  Renais- 
sance comprehends  the  revival  of  literature  and  art,  the 
progress  in  philosophy  and  criticism,  the  discovery  of  the 
solar  system  by  Copernicus  and  Galileo,  the  extinction  of 
feudalism,  the  development  of  the  great  nationalities  and 
languages  of  modern  Europe,  the  emancipation  of  enslaved 
intelligence,  the  expansion  and  freedom  of  thought,  the 
invention  of  the  printing-press,  the  discovery  and  exploration 
of  America  and  the  East ;  in  one  word,  all  the  progressive 
developments  of  the  later  Middle  Ages.  In  this  compre- 
hensive sense  Michelet  calls  the  Renaissance  "the  discovery 
of  the  world,  and  the  discovery  of  man."  In  the  narrower 
sense,  it  is  confined  to  the  revival  of  literature  and  art. 
Renaissance  means  a  new  birth  or  regeneration,  but  the 
literary  movement  so  called  was  not  a  single  act,  but  a 
long  intellectual  and  artistic  process  preparatory  to  that 
moral  and  religious  renovation  which  we  call  the  Reforma- 
tion, and  to  what  we  understand  by  modern,  as  distinct  from 
mediaeval  and  ancient,  civilization.1 

1  Mtintz  (I.e.,  I.,  i)  thus  defines  the  term  Renaissance :  "  II  signifie  ce 
rajeunissement  de  f  esprit  humain,  cet  ajfranchissement  de  la  pensfo,  cet  essor 
des  sciences  et  ce  raffinement  de  la  civilisation,  cette  fur  suite  de  la  distinction  et 
de  la  beaute",  qui  se  sontaffirme's  en  Italie  vers  le  quinzieme  siecle,  sous  finfluence 
des  lefons  de  r  antiquiti."  Taine  says  (Lect.  on  Art,  Sec.  Ser.,  p.  79) :  "  The 
Renaissance  is  an  unique  moment,  intermediate  between  the  Middle  Ages  and 
modern  times,  between  a  lack  of  culture  and  over-culture,  between  the  reign  of 
crude  instincts  and  the  reign  of  ripe  ideas."  The  term  Renaissance  originated 
in  the  I5th  century,  and  was  first  used  in  the  theological  sense  of  spiritual 
regeneration. 


io  The  Renaissance. 

Italy  was  the  home  of  the  Renaissance.  That  beautiful 
country  inherited  the  Roman  traditions,  and  never  lost  its 
connection  with  them.  Latin  was  spoken  down  to  the  thir- 
teenth century.  St.  Anthony  of  Padua  (d.  1231)  preached 
in  Latin,  and  the  people  understood  him ;  even  the  fishes,  it 
was  said,  ascended  from  the  water  to  listen  to  his  eloquence. 
Although  Lombards,  Goths,  and  Normans  invaded  the 
country,  they  were  romanized  much  more  than  the  Italians 
were  teutonized.  The  feudal  system  and  Gothic  architect- 
ure found  no  congenial  soil  south  of  the  Alps.  There  are 
very  few  Gothic  churches  in  Italy — the  cathedrals  of  Milan, 
Siena,  and  Orvieto,  St.  Maria  Novella  in  Florence,  St.  Maria 
sopra  Minerva  in  Rome,  and  the  Franciscan  convent  of 
Assisi ;  and  these  are  either  the  works  of  foreign  architects 
or  adapted  to  Italian  taste,  which  preferred  classic  models. 
The  German  empire  lost  its  influence  in  Italy  after  the 
extinction  of  the  Hohenstaufen  dynasty.  But  the  cities 
developed  their  municipal  institutions,  whether  monarchical, 
oligarchical,  or  democratic,  and  fostered  literature  and  art. 
The  Italians  were  proud  of  their  superior  culture,  and  looked 
with  contempt  upon  the  Northern  aud  Western  barbarians, 
the  gluttonous  and  drunken  Britons  and  Germans.  Petrarca 
was  tolerably  well  pleased  with  Paris,  but  the  farther  north 
he  travelled  the  more  he  admired  his  Italian  home.  The 
Italians  are  born  with  a  sense  of  beauty.  Even  the  beggars 
in  rags  look  picturesque,  and  exclaim  before  a  statue  or  fine 
picture :  O  Dio,  com'  t  bello  ! 

The  Renaissance  was  born  in  the  republic  of  Florence, 
under  the  patronage  of  the  Medici  family,  and  matured  in 
Rome  under  the  patronage  of  the  popes.  From  these  two 
centres  it  spread  all  over  Italy,  France,  Germany,' Holland, 
and  England.  It  ascended  the  papal  throne  with  Nicolas 
V.  (i447~'55),  the  founder  of  the  Vatican  Library,  and  was 
nurtured  by  his  successors,  Pius  II.  (i458-'64),  Sixtus  IV. 
(i47i-'84),  who  founded  the  Sistine  Chapel,  Julius  II. 
(1503-' 1 3),  who  called  Bramante,  Michel  Angelo,  and  Raphael 
to  Rome,  and  Leo  X.  (i5i3-*22),  who  gave  them  the  most 
liberal  encouragement  in  their  works  of  art.  The  Renais- 


Origin,  Character,  and  Influence  of  the  Renaissance.      1 1 

sance  was  the  last  great  movement  of  history  in  which  Italy 
and  the  popes  took  the  lead. 

The  history  of  the  Renaissance  may  be  divided  into  two 
periods :  the  first  from  Dante  to  Nicolas  V. ;  the  second 
from  Nicolas  V.  to  Leo  X.  Then  followed  the  Protestant 
Reformation  and  the  papal  counter-Reformation,  which 
changed  the  religious  condition  of  Europe. 

The  literary  humanism  was  reproductive  rather  than 
productive.  Its  Latin  works  consist  of  orations,  letters, 
histories,  poems,  and  translations,  and  have  now  only  an 
historic  interest ;  but  the  Italian  works  of  Dante,  Petrarca, 
and  Boccaccio  hold  their  position  as  classics.  Most  of  the 
humanists  were  not  regularly  attached  to  universities,  like 
modern  scholars,  but  led  an  unsteady  life  as  wandering 
lecturers,  and  were  supported  by  the  uncertain  fees  of  stu- 
dents, the  benefices  of  the  Church,  or  the  private  liberality  of 
the  rich.  Many  of  them  were  employed  as  scribes  and  secre- 
taries of  princes  and  popes.  The  artists  of  the  Renaissance 
produced  works  of  the  highest  order  in  architecture,  sculpture, 
and  painting. 

The  Renaissance  revived  the  study  of  the  classics ;  it 
recovered  from  the  dust  of  ages  the  literary  treasures  of 
ancient  Greece  and  Rome,  and  collected  them  into  libraries 
for  public  use  ;  it  produced  the  national  literature  of  Italy, 
and  the  greatest  works  of  modern  art ;  it  adorned  Italy  with 
churches,  museums,  and  picture-galleries,  which  still  attract 
admiring  visitors  from  every  land.  It  introduced  the  worship 
of  beauty,  and  with  it  a  new  form  of  paganism,  in  outward 
conformity,  but  secret  indifference  or  hostility,  to  the  Catholic 
Church.  It  emancipated  the  mind  from  the  bondage  of 
dogma  and  the  barren  formalism  of  scholastic  philosophy 
and  theology.  In  its  more  serious  turn  it  prepared  the  way 
for  the  Protestant  Reformation  which  utilized  its  best  ele- 
ments for  the  revival  of  primitive  Christianity.  The  Renais- 
sance broke  up  the  clerical  monopoly  of  learning,  and  made 
it  the  property  of  the  laity  as  well.  It  destroyed  the 
monastic  ideal  of  life,  and  directed  attention  to  the  equal 
or  superior  excellence  of  natural  morality.  To  the  monk 


12  The  Renaissance. 

beauty  was  a  snare,  woman  a  temptation,  pleasure  a  sin,  the 
world  vanity  of  vanities.  The  humanist  saw  the  finger  of 
God  in  reason,  in  science,  in  nature,  in  art,  and  taught  men 
that  life  is  worth  living. 

Italy  created  a  new  world  of  beauty,  Germany  produced 
a  new  world  of  thought.  Reuchlin  and  Erasmus  are  the 
connecting  links  between  the  Renaissance  and  the  Reforma- 
tion. Melanchthon  and  Zwingli  are  the  humanists  among 
the  Reformers;  but  their  love  of  learning  was  subordinate 
and  subservient  to  their  zeal  for  religion.  The  Roman  Church 
rejected  the  Protestant  Reformation,  and  by  the  Council  of 
Trent,  the  order  of  the  Jesuits,  the  Spanish  Inquisition,  and 
the  whole  counter-Reformation,  she  built  an  iron  wall 
against  modern  progress.  But  the  world  still  moves. 
Renaissance,  Reformation,  Reaction,  Revolution,  Recon- 
struction, are  links  in  the  chain  of  modern  progress.1 

1  "Die  Renaissance"  says  Gregorovius  (VII.,  509),  "  war  die  Reformation 
der  Italiener.  Sie  machten  die  Wissenschaft  von  dogmatise  hen  Fesseln  frei ; 
sie  gaben  den  Menschen  der  Menscheit  und  der  ganzen  Cultur  zuruck,  und  sie 
ersckufen  so  eine  kosmische  Bildung,  in  deren  Process  wir  noch  heute  stehent 
deren  fernere  Entwicklung  und  Ziel  wir  noch  heute  nicht  ahnen  kdnnen.  Die 
Wiederbelebung  der  Wissenschaften  war  der  erste  grosse  Act  jener  unermess- 
Kchen  moralischen  Revolution,  loorin  Europa  noch  begriffen  ist%  und  deren 
bisher  offenbare  Epocken  sind :  die  italienische  Renaissance t  die  deutsche  Re- 
formation, die  franzosische  Revolution.  Mit  Recht  heisstjene  erste  Epoche  die 
des  Humanismus,  denn  mil  ihr  beginnt  die  moderne  Menschlichkeit." 


CHAPTER  III. 

DANTE   ALIGHIERI   (1265-1321). 

G.  A.  Scartazzini  (a  native  of  the  Grisons,  Reformed  minister  at  Fahrwangen, 
in  Aargau)  :  Prolegomeni  delta  Divina  Commedia.  Introduzione  allo  studio  di 
Dante  Alighieri  e  ddle  sue  opere,  Leipzig  (F.  A.  Brockhaus),  1890. 

Philip  SchafT  :  Dante  and  the  Divina  Commedia,  in  "  Literature  and  Poetry," 
New  York  (Scribncr's  Sons)  1890,  pp.  279-429  ;  also  separately  printed.  Com- 
pare the  extensive  Dante  literature,  classified  according  to  language  and 
nationality,  on  pp.  328-337. 

The  best  Italian  text  of  the  Commedia  is  by  Witte  ;  the  latest  and  best  Italian 
commentaries  are  by  Dr.  Scartazzini  (Leipzig,  1874-1882,  3  vols.)  and  by  Cav. 
Prof.  Giuseppe  Campi  (Torino,  1890  s$q.t  with  125  illustrated  pages).  The 
best  German  versions  and  notes  are  by  Kannegiesser,  Philalethes  (King  John, 
of  Saxony),  Graul,  Witte,  Wegele,  and  Gildemeister.  English  versions  by 
Gary,  J.  A.  Carlyle,  Longfellow,  Parsons,  Plumptre,  etc. 

Dante,  Petrarca,  and  Boccaccio  represent  the  birth  and 
glory  of  Italian  literature,  and  are  the  fathers  of  the  revival 
of  letters.  The  humanists  who  followed  them  preferred 
Latin,  until  Ariosto  and  Torquato  Tasso  returned  to 
Italian  and  completed  the  golden  age  of  Italian  poetry. 

Dante,  the  poet,  statesman,  philosopher,  and  theologian, 
the  first  of  Italian  classics,  and  the  greatest  of  mediaeval 
poets,  has  given  us  in  his  Divine  Comedy,  conceived  in  130x3, 
the  year  of  the  first  papal  jubilee,  a  poetic  view  of  the  moral 
universe  under  the  aspect  of  eternity  (sub  specie  (Zternitatis). 
It  is  a  cathedral  built  of  immortal  spirits.  It  is  a  mirror  of 
mediaeval  Christianity  and  civilization,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  a  work  of  universal  significance  and  perennial  interest. 
It  connects  the  Middle  Ages  with  the  modern  world.1  It  is 

1  "  Die  Komodie  ist  der  Schwanengesang  des  Mittelalters,  zugleich  aber  auch 
das  begeisterte  Lied,  welches  die  Herankunft  einer  neuen  Zeit  einleitet" 
Scartazzini,  Dante  Alighieri.  Seine  Zeit,  sein  Leben  ^^nd  seine  Werke  (1869), 

13 


14  The  Renaissance. 

personal  and  national,  and  yet  cosmopolitan.  It  is  Dante's 
autobiography,  and  reflects  his  own  experience  in  Florence. 

"  All  the  pains  by  me  depicted,  woes  and  tortures,  void  of  pity, 
On  this  earth  I  have  encountered — found  them  all  in  Florence  City." ' 

But  the  Comedy  is,  at  the  same  time,  the  spiritual  biography 
of  man  as  man  in  the  three  conditions  of  sin,  repentance,  and 
salvation.  It  describes  the  pilgrimage  of  the  human  soul  from 
the  dark  forest  of  temptation,  through  the  depths  of  despair, 
up  the  terraces  of  purification,  to  the  realms  of  bliss,  under 
the  guidance  of  natural  reason  (Virgil),  and  of  Divine  wisdom 
and  love  (Beatrice).  The  Inferno  reflects  sin  and  misery ; 
the  Purgatorio,  penitence  and  hope  ;  the  Paradiso,  holiness 
and  happiness.  The  Inferno  is  diabolic,  the  Purgatorio 
human,  the  Paradiso  divine.  The  first  repels  by  its  horrors 
and  lamentations  ;  the  second  moves  by  its  penitential  tears 
and  prayers ;  the  third  enraptures  by  its  purity  and  bliss. 
Purgatory  is  an  intermediate  state,  constantly  passing  away, 
but  Hell  and  Heaven  will  last  forever.  Hell  is  hopeless 
darkness  and  despair ;  Heaven  is  all  light  and  bliss,  and  cul- 
minates in  the  beatific  vision  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  beyond 
which  nothing  higher  can  be  conceived  by  man  or  angel. 
The  saints  are  represented  as  forming  a  spotless  white  rose, 
and  its  cup  is  a  lake  of  light,  surrounded  by  innocent  children 
praising  God.  This  sublime  conception  was  probably  sug- 
gested by  the  rose  windows  of  Gothic  cathedrals,  or  by  the 
fact  that  the  Virgin  Mary  was  often  called  a  Rose  by  St. 
Bernard  and  other  mediaeval  divines  and  poets. 

The  form  of  the  supernatural  world  is  adjusted  by  Dante 
to  the  geocentric  cosmology  of  the  Ptolemaic  system,  which 
has  long  since  passed  away ;  but  the  .spiritual  ideas  remain. 

p.  530.  Geiger  (Renaissance,  p.  li) :  "Dante  ist ein  Burger  z-weier  Welten ; 
er  steht  nock  mil  einem  Fusse  in  der  alien  Zeit  und schreitetdoch  ah  Fiihrer  den 
Kindern  einer  neuen  Zeit  machtig  varan.  Solches  Doppelwesen  fuhrt  leicht  zur 
Halb licit ;  die  Zeit  ist  wie  die  Geliebtet  sie  -verlangtden  Menschen  ganz  oder  will 
ihn  gar  nicht  und  -wendet  sick  darum  un-willig  -von  demjenigen  ab,  dcr  sich  ihr 
nicht  vollig  ergibt," 

"  Allen  Schmerz,  den  ifhgesungen,  all  die  Qua/en,  Greu'l  und  Wunden 
Hab"  ich  schon  auf  dieser  Erden,  hab'  ich  in  Florenz  gefunden. " 

— From  Geibel's  Dante  in  Verona. 


Dante  A  lighter i.  15 

He  locates  Hell  beneath  the  earth,  Purgatory  on  a  mountain 
in  the  Southern  hemisphere,  Heaven  in  the  planets  of  the 
starry  firmament,  culminating  in  the  Empyrean.1 

Among  these  regions  of  the  spiritual  and  future  world 
Dante  distributes  the  best  known  characters  of  his  and  of 
former  generations,  with  a  somewhat  arbitrary  selection,  ac- 
cording to  his  limited  knowledge  of  history,  but  with  the 
stern  impartiality  of  an  incorruptible  judge.  He  spares 
neither  friend  nor  foe,  neither  Guelf  nor  Ghibelline,  neither 
pope  nor  emperor,  and  gives  to  each  his  due.  He  adapts  the 
punishment  to  the  nature  of  sin,  and  the  reward  to  the  na- 
ture of  virtue,  and  shows  an  amazing  ingenuity  and  fertility 
of  imagination  in  this  correspondence  of  outward  condition 
to  moral  character.  He  carried  out  the  principle  :  "  With 
what  measure  ye  mete,  it  shall  be  measured  to  you  again  " 
(Mark  iv.  124;  Luke  vi.  138;  comp.  Wisdom  xi. :  17).  Sin 
itself,  in  the  other  world,  is  the  punishment  of  sin ;  the 
evil  desire  remains,  but  as  a  tormenting  sting. 

Thus  the  cowards  and  indifferentists  in  the  vestibule  of 
the  Inferno  are  driven  by  a  whirling  flag,  and  stung  by  wasps 
and  flies.  The  licentious  are  driven  by  fierce  winds  in  total 
darkness,  with  the  carnal  lust  still  burning,  but  incapable  of 
gratification.  The  gluttons  are  lying  on  the  ground,  ex- 
posed to  a  shower  of  hail  and  foul  water.  The  blasphemers 
are  lying  supine  upon  a  plain  of  burning  sand,  while 
sparks  of  fire,  like  flakes  of  snow  in  the  Alps,  are  slowly 
and  constantly  descending  upon  their  bodies.  The  simon- 
ists,  who  sell  religion  for  money,  and  change  the  temple 
of  God  into  a  den  of  thieves,  are  fixed  in  holes,  head 
downwards,  with  their  feet  out,  and  tormented  with  flames. 
The  traitors  are  immersed  in  a  lake  of  ice  with  Satan,  the 
arch-traitor  and  the  embodiment  of  selfishness  and  pride. 
There  is  a  similar  correspondence  between  sins  and  disci- 
plinary punishments  in  the  Purgatorio,  but  with  the  oppo- 

1  See  the  pictorial  illustrations  in  my  essays  on  Dante.  It  is  impossible  to 
understand  his  poem  without  a  knowledge  of  the  geography,  astronomy,  and 
astrology,  as  well  as  the  exegesis,  philosophy,  and  theology  (scholastic  and 
mystic)  of  the  Middle  Ages. 


16  The  Renaissance, 

site  effect ;  for  there  the  sins  are  repented  of  and  forgiven. 
Thus  the  proud  in  the  first  and  lowest  terrace  of  the 
mountain  are  compelled  to  totter  under  huge  weights,  to 
learn  humility.  The  indolent  in  the  fourth  terrace  are 
exercised  by  constant  and  rapid  walking.  The  avaricious 
and  prodigal,  with  hands  and  feet  tied  together,  lie  with 
their  faces  in  the  dust,  weeping  and  wailing.  The  gluttons 
suffer  hunger  and  thirst,  to  learn  temperance.  The  licen- 
tious wander  about  in  flames  that  their  sensual  passions  may 
be  consumed  by  fire.  In  the  Paradiso  the  spirits  of  the 
saints  are  distributed  according  to  the  different  stages  of 
perfection  and  glory  they  enjoy,  and  the  planetary  influ- 
ences under  which  they  were  living  on  earth,  according  to 
the  astrological  notions  of  the  poet.  The  theologians  are 
located  in  the  heaven  of  the  sun,  the  martyrs,  crusaders,  and 
heroes  of  faith  in  the  heaven  of  Mars,  the  righteous  princes 
and  judges  in  the  heaven  of  Jupiter,  the  hermits  and  con- 
templative mystics  in  the  heaven  of  Saturn,  the  hierarchy  of 
the  angels  in  the  Crystal  Heaven  or  Primum  Mobile,  the 
Deity  in  the  Empyrean,  which  is  itself  the  original  cause  of  all 
motion,  and  itself  immovable.  But  all  the  saints  enjoy  the 
same  reward  of  the  beatific  vision  of  the  blessed  Trinity 
with  the  glorified  human  face  of  the  God-Man. 

Dante  is  an  interested  spectator  of  the  horrible  conse- 
quences of  sin,1  and  the  tears  of  repentance.  His  heart  must 
be  cleansed  of  the  seven  mortal  sins,  as  the  seven  P's  {peccatd) 
are  washed  away  from  his  forehead.  He  is  severely  rebuked 
for  his  sins  by  Beatrice,  his  guardian  angel,  who  meets  him 
after  he  reaches  the  top  of  Mount /Vffggferp  On  tne  terrestrial 
Paradise).  "  Pricked  by  the  thorn  of  penitence  "  and  "  stung 
at  the  heart  by  self-conviction,"  he  makes  an  humble  confes- 
sion, falls  to  the  ground,  is  plunged  and  drawn  by  Matelda 
through  the  river  Lethe  ;  drinks  new  life  from  the  brook 

1  In  the  famous  episode  on  Francesca  da  Rimini,  he  says  {Inferno,  v.,  146, 
sqq.}  : 

"  The  other  one  did  weep  so,  that,  for  pity, 
I  swooned  away  as  if  I  had  been  dying, 
And  fell,  even  as  a  dead  body  falls." 


Dante  Alighieri.  if 

Eunoe,  and  ascends  under  the  guidance  of  Beatrice  to  the 
abodes  of  the  blessed  in  heaven. 

The  Comedy  is  a  marvel  of  diction  as  well  as  of  thought. 
It  has  been  justly  called  "  the  mediaeval  miracle  of  song." 
Dante  writes  Avith  fiery  characters.  He  strikes  the  summits 
of  society  with  a  few  words,  as  the  lightning  strikes  the  tops 
of  trees.  "  Look,  and  pass  on  !  "  With  astonishing  energy 
he  carries  the  solemn  and  melodious  terza  rima  through  one 
hundred  cantos  of  14,233  verses.  The  number  three — the 
symbol  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  the  beginning,  middle,  and  end 
of  all  things — dominates  the  structure  :  three  parts,  each  part 
thirty-three  cantos,  with  an  introductory  canto,  thus  making 
one  hundred  cantos — the  symbol  of  perfection.  Each  of  the 
three  parts  closes  with  the  word  "  stars  "  (stelle),  which  are 
the  blessed  abodes  of  peace,  the  end  of  his  aspirations  and 
desires.  In  the  Inferno  the  language  is  awfully  earnest ;  in 
the  Purgatoriot  affectingly  pensive ;  in  the  Paradiso,  trans- 
portingly  charming ;  in  all  parts  simple,  solemn,  and  noble. 
It  abounds  in  images  and  symbols,  and  sounds  like  cathedral 
music,  especially  the  Paradiso.  The  rhyme  comes  naturally 
as  the  musical  expression  of  the  poetic  thought.  The  name 
of  Christ  (Cristo),  which  is  above  every  name,  is  made  to 
rhyme  only  with  itself.  Hence  it  is  three  times  repeated.  It 
never  occurs  in  the  Inferno,  because  the  infernals  cannot  bear 
it,  but  Virgil  alludes  twice  to  "  the  Mighty  One,"  whom  he 
saw  descending  to  Hades  "  with  the  sign  of  victory  crowned," 
as  "  the  Man  who  was  born  and  lived  without  sin."  In  the 
Purgatorio  and  Paradiso  Christ  often  appears  as  "  the  exalted 
Son  of  God  and  Mary,"  as  "  the  Lamb  of  God  who  takes 
away  our  sins,"  and  "  suffered  death  that  we  might  live." 

Dante  began  the  Comedy  in  Latin,  and  was  blamed  by 
Giovanni  del  Virgilio,  a  teacher  of  Latin  literature  in  Bo- 
logna, because  he  abandoned  the  language  of  old  Rome 
for  the  vulgar  dialect  of  Tuscany.  His  teacher,  Brunette 
Latini  (d.  1294),  wrote  his  Tesoro  in  French  as  being,  in  his 
opinion,  "  the  most  delectable  and  common  of  all  the 

1  Inferno,  iii.,  51  : 

"  Non  ragioniam  di  lor,  ma  guarda  e  fossa." 


1 8  The  Renaissance. 

languages." '  Dante  defended  the  use  of  Italian  against 
the  contempt  of  scholars,  in  his  unfinished  book  on 
"Eloquence  in  the  Vernacular,"  (De  Vulgari  Eloquio)* 
But  by  writing  the  Commcdia,  the  Vita  Nuova,  the  Convivio, 
and  the  Canzoniere  in  his  native  Florentine  tongue,  he  became 
the  creator  of  Italian  literature  without  an  equal  or  a 
successor  in  power  and  influence.  He  thus  broke  the  om- 
nipotence of  Latin  in  literature  and  gave  impulse  to  the 
development  of  modern  languages.  Chaucer,  the  father  of 
English  poetry,  received  inspiration  from  the  Divina  Corn- 
media. 

Dante  emancipated  the  laity  from  the  power  of  the  clergy, 
who  hitherto  had  the  monopoly  of  learning  in  Europe.  In 
this  respect  also  he  anticipated  the  modern  spirit.  He  was 
neither  priest  nor  monk  nor  connected  with  a  university,  but 
a  layman,  a  husband,  and  father  of  several  children.  Exiled 
from  his  native  city  for  political  reasons,  he  spent  his  best 
years  as  a  wanderer,  and  had  to  eat  the  bread  and  to 
ascend  the  steps  of  strangers — homeless  and  homesick,  with 
the  sentence  of  death  hanging  over  his  head,  finding  rest 
and  happiness  nowhere  but  in  the  love  of  letters,  the  pursuit 
of  truth,  and  the  contemplation  of  eternity.  His  immortal 
poem  is  a  child  of  sorrow.  "  He  learnt  in  suffering  what  he 
taught  in  song." 

Dante  was  in  full  harmony  with  the  orthodox  faith  of  his 
age  and  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  Thomas  Aquinas,  Bona- 
ventura,  and  St.  Bernard.  His  Comedy  is  a  poetic  glorifica- 
tion of  the  Christian  religion,  and  of  scholastic  and  mystic  the- 
ology. He  believed  in  all  the  articles  of  the  Apostles'  Creed, 
and  also  in  the  distinctive  tenets  of  mediaeval  Catholicism, 
as  purgatory,  the  worship  of  Mary,  the  intercession  of  saints, 
and  the  divine  institution  of  the  papacy.  But  at  the  same 
time,  in  the  consciousness  of  a  prophetic  mission  and  by 

1  His  Tesoretto,  however,  which  gives  substantially  the  same  contents  in  alle- 
gorical and  poetic  form  and  suggested  to  Dante  some  of  the  imagery  in  the 
beginning  of  the  Commedia  (the  dark  forest,  the  guide  from  antiquity,  etc.)  was 
written  in  Italian.  Dante  revered  his  teacher,  and  yet  on  account  of  his  un- 
natural vice  he  puts  him  with  stern  impartiality  into  hell. 

8  An  English  translation  by  A.  G.  Ferres  Howell,  London,  1890. 


Dante  Alighieri.  19 

direction  of  the  blessed  Beatrice — the  symbol  of  divine  rev- 
elation, wisdom,  and  love, — he  fearlessly  opposed  the  unwor- 
thy incumbents  of  the  papacy,  Avho  changed  the  kingdom  of 
Christ  into  a  kingdom  of  this  world.  He  demanded  a 
thorough  moral  reformation  of  the  Church  and  a  restoration 
of  the  empire,  regarding  them  as  two  divine  institutions  in 
friendly  alliance,  yet  separate  and  distinct.  He  traced  the 
evils  of  the  Church  to  her  temporal  power,  and  while  he 
accepted  the  tradition  of  the  donation  of  Constantine,  he 
denied  the  right  of  Constantine  to  give  away  his  western 
dominion  to  the  bishop  of  Rome.  He  condemned  to  ever- 
lasting punishment  Pope  Anastasius  II.  for  heresy,  Nicholas 
III.,  Boniface  VIII.,  and  Clement  V.  for  simony,  and  a 
multitude  of  other  popes  for  avarice.  He  is  especially 
severe  on  Boniface  VIII.,  the  author  of  his  misfortunes, 
who  claimed  the  temporal  as  well  as  the  spiritual  sword,  and 
by  avarice  and  simony  "  turned  the  cemetery  of  St.  Peter 
into  a  common  sewer  of  corruption."  Such  bold  language 
furnished  a  powerful  weapon  to  the  enemies  of  the  papacy, 
and  there  is  no  wonder  that  his  book  on  the  Empire  (De 
Monarchia)  was  put  on  the  Index  by  the  Council  of  Trent. 
In  the  15th  century  he  would  have  sympathized  with  Savon- 
arola against  Alexander  VI.,  in  the  sixteenth  with  Luther 
against  Tetzel  (but  no  further),  in  the  nineteenth  with  the 
Italian  patriots  in  their  struggle  for  the  unity  of  Italy  and 
against  the  temporal  power  of  the  papacy.  He  anticipated, 
we  may  say,  the  modern  separation  of  Church  and  State. 

In  accord  with  the  Augustinian  theology  he  excluded 
from  Paradise  the  whole  heathen  mass  of  mankind,  even 
infants,  although  they  never  committed  an  actual  sin  and 
never  heard  of  Adam's  transgression.  Truly,  a  dogma  Jwrri- 
bile,  which  the  Reformers  (with  the  sole  exception  of 
Zwingli)  retained  as  an  inheritance  from  the  dark  ages. 
He  held  that  baptism  was  necessary  for  salvation  except 
for  the  circumcised  believers  of  the  Old  Dispensation  from 
Adam  to  John  the  Baptist,  and  for  two  solitary  pagans, 
namely,  Cato  of  Utica,  who  sacrificed  life  for  liberty  and 
keeps  watch  at  the  foot  of  Purgatory,  and  for  the  just 


2O  The  Renaissance. 

Emperor  Trajan,  who,  five  hundred  years  after  his  death, 
was  believed  to  have  been  prayed  out  of  hell  by  Pope 
Gregory  I.  Dante  has,  however,  the  highest  regard  for 
Virgil,  his  master  in  poetry,  who  represents  secular  wis- 
dom and  natural  reason.  He  is  guided  by  him  through 
the  Inferno  and  Purgatorio  to  the  terrestrial  Paradise, 
from  whence  he  is  led  by  Beatrice  in  his  flight  through 
the  ten  heavens,  till  he  attains,  through  the  prayer  of  the 
mystic  St.  Bernard,  to  the  beatific  vision  of  the  Holy  Trinity. 
He  assigns  moreover  to  the  noble  heathen  poets,  phi- 
losophers, statesmen,  and  warriors  a  tolerably  comfortable 
place  in  the  upper  regions  of  the  hopeless  Inferno ;  while 
unfaithful  Christians  are  punished  in  the  lower  circles  accord- 
ing to  the  degree  of  their  guilt.  The  heathen  who  followed 
the  light  of  nature  suffer  "  sorrow  without  pain."  As  Virgil 
says : 

"  In  the  right  manner  they  adored  not  God. 
For  such  defects,  and  not  for  other  guilt, 
Lost  are  we,  and  are  only  so  far  punished, 
That  without  hope  we  live  on  in  desire." 

Dante  interweaves  classical  and  Christian  reminiscences, 
mythological  fables  with  Biblical  history,  invokes  the  aid  of 
Apollo  and  the  Muses,  and  gives  room  to  pagan  gods  and 
demigods,  but  transforms  them  into  demons  (as  they  are 
represented  by  sculpture  in  the  Gothic  cathedrals).  He 
retains  Minos  as  judge  at  the  door,  and  Charon  as  boatman 
over  the  Stygian  lake,  and  associates  Centaurs  and  Furies 
with  the  agents  of  diabolical  torture.  Such  a  mixture  of 
Christianity  with  heathenism  began,  we  may  say,  in  the 
catacombs,  where  Christ  is  represented  as  Apollo  and  Or- 
pheus ;  it  was  largely  increased  after  the  elevation  of  the  cross 
to  the  throne  of  the  Caesars  and  the  conquest  of  the  bar- 
barian races.  Even  in  the  Dies  Ira,  the  Sibyl  is  associated 
with  David  in  the  prophecy  of  the  judgment.  But  in  Dante 
the  heathen  element  is  throughout  controlled  and  made 
subservient  to  the  Christian ;  while  in  the  Renaissance  it 
gains  the  mastery.  He  is  always  intensely  in  earnest.  He 


Dante  A  lighter  i.  21 

abhors  sin  under  every  form,  in  every  class  of  society,  and 
admires  virtue  and  holiness.  In  this  moral  earnestness  and 
spiritual  significance  lies  the  abiding  value  of  the  Divina 
Commedia, 

.     .     .     .     "  That  sacred  poem 

To  which  both  heaven  and  earth  have  set  their  hands." 

Ungrateful  Florence  banished  her  greatest  son  and  threat- 
ened to  burn  him  alive  if  he  dared  to  return ;  but  half  a 
century  after  his  death  she  erected  a  chair  for  the  explana- 
tion of  the  Commedia,  whose  first  occupant  was  Boccaccio. 
She  vainly  begged  his  ashes,  which  still  repose  in  Ravenna, 
but  she  erected  to  him  an  imposing  monument  in  Santa 
Croce  and  a  statue  on  the  piazza  in  front,  and  in  1885  she 
celebrated  with  all  Italy  the  sixth  centenary  of  his  birth. 
The  Divina  Commedia  will  never  cease  to  be  studied  as  a 
work  of  art,  and  as  a  prophetic  voice  of  Divine  justice  and 
mercy.  Dante  is 

"  King  that  has  reigned  six  hundred  years,  and  grown 
In  power  and  ever  grows." 

Petrarca  rarely  mentions  Dante  and  seems  to  have  been 
envious  of  his  fame,  but  he  wrote  an  epitaph  in  which  he  calls 
him  "  the  majestic  column  of  Roman  eloquence,  the  honor 
of  the  globe,  the  glory  of  the  Tuscan  people,  the  orna- 
ment and  prince  of  poets.  Driven  from  his  native  city,  he 
adorned  the  whole  earth  with  his  glory.  Fortune  could  not 
make  him  proud,  nor  misfortune  discourage  him;  like  an 
unshaken  wall  he  stood  against  every  occurrence.  Hence 
envious  death  could  not  extinguish  his  splendor ;  his  name 
remains  sacred  to  memory,  and  his  glory  will  endure  forever." 


CHAPTER   IV. 

PETRARCA   (1304 — IS/2). 

On  the  literature  see  Marsand  :  Biblioteca  Petrarchesca  (Milan,  1826).  Atli- 
lio  Hortis :  Catalogo  delle  opere  di  F.  P.  existenti  nella  Petrarchesca  Rosset- 
tiana,  Triest.,  1874.  Geiger  :  Renaiss.,  etc.,  p.  365  sq. 

I.  Petrarca :     Opera  Omnia,  Venet,  1503;  Basil.,  1554  and  1581.      Epis- 
tolce  ed.  in  Latin  and  Italian  by  Fracassetti,  Florent.,  i85g-'7o,  in  several  vols. 
The  Canzoniere  or  Rime  in  Vita  e  Morte  di  Madonna  Laura  were  often  sep- 
arately edited  by  Marsand,  Leopardi,  Carducci,  and  others,  and  in  all  collec- 
tions of  the  Italian  classics. 

II.  Lives  of  Petrarca  by  De  Sade  (Amsterd.,  i764-'67,  3  vols.)  ;  Baldelli 
(Firenze,  1797);   Campbell  (London,   1841);  Blanc  (Halle,    1844);    Mezieres 
(Paris,  1868,  and  2d  ed.,  1873) ;  L.  Geiger  (Leipzig,  1874  ;   and  in  his  Renais- 
sance, pp.  23-47) ;    *  Koerting,   Leipzig,  1878,   pp.    722.    Comp.  also  Voigt, 
/.  c.,  i.,  21-159. 

Francesco  Petrarca  *  is  far  inferior  to  Dante  as  an  original 
poet  and  thinker,  but  as  a  literary  man  he  went  a  step  be- 
yond him,  and  entered  the  promised  land  of  classical  lore. 
He  was  born  at  Arezzo,  of  Florentine  extraction  ;  his  father 
having  been  banished  at  the  same  time  with  Dante  (1302). 
He  received  his  education  in  Avignon,  Montpellier,  and 
Bologna,  and  lived  alternately  in  Avignon,  Vaucluse  (a  small 
estate  twelve  miles  from  Avignon),  Rome,  Parma,  Venice, 
Padua.  He  studied  law,  but  took  more  interest  in  Virgil 
and  Cicero,  and  was  ordained  a  priest,  though  without  an  in- 
ternal call.  He  enjoyed  several  ecclesiastical  benefices  as 
prior,  canon,  and  archdeacon,  which  provided  for  his  sup- 
port without  burdening  him  with  duties.  He  courted  and 
enjoyed  the  favor  of  princes  and  prelates.  He  was  crowned 
poet  laureate  by  the  Roman  Senate  on  the  Capitol  in  the 

1  Usually  spelled  Petrarch  in  English  (from  the  Latin),  with  a  change  of  the 
accent.  I  prefer  the  Italian  original.  His  patronymic  was  Petracco,  which 
he  changed  into  Petrarca,  for  the  sake  of  euphony. 

22 


Petrarca.  23 

presence  of  King  Robert  of  Naples  (April  8,  1341).  This 
he  regarded  as  the  crowning  glory  of  his  life.  He  hailed 
the  fantastic  attempt  of  his  friend,  Cola  di  Rienzi,  to  restore 
the  ancient  republic  of  Rome  (1347),  and  was  mortified  at 
his  utter  incapacity,  fall,  and  flight.  The  political  resurrec- 
tion of  old  Rome  failed,  the  literary  resurrection  succeeded. 

Petrarca  was  the  most  cultured  man  of  his  age.  He  wrote 
Italian  and  Latin  poetry  and  prose  with  equal  facility,  al- 
though his  Latinity  fell  far  short  of  the  Ciceronian  standard 
of  the  later  humanists.  He  picked  up  the  rudiments  of 
Greek  from  Barlaam  of  Calabria.  He  had  a  genial  and 
amiable  personality,  but  not  free  from  serious  blemishes. 
He  was  very  vain  and  ambitious,  envious  and  jealous.  He 
could  not  appreciate  the  merits  of  others,  except  those  of 
the  ancient  classics  who  were  not  rivals.  He  was  (as  Voigt 
calls  him)  "  an  indefatigable  hunter  after  dignities  and  emol- 
uments." He  abused  the  Babel  of  Avignon,  and  yet  flat- 
tered the  popes,  to  increase  his  revenues,  pleading  in  excuse 
that  he  had  to  support  children,  to  keep  servants,  two 
horses,  and  three  scribes,  and  to  entertain  numerous  guests. 
In  spite  of  his  priestly  vows  he  lived  with  concubines.  He 
had  an  illegitimate  son,  Giovanni,  born  in  1336,  who  gave 
him  much  trouble,  and  an  illegitimate  daughter,  Francesca, 
born  in  1343,  who  was  married  to  a  nobleman,  and  became 
the  companion  of  his  old  age.  Both  children  were  after- 
wards legitimatized  by  papal  bulls. 

In  riper  years,  especially  after  his  pilgrimage  to  Rome  in 
the  jubilee  of  1350,  he  broke  away  from  the  slavery  of  sin. 
"  I  now  hate  that  pestilence,"  he  writes  to  Boccaccio,  "  in- 
finitely more  \han  I  loved  it  once,  so  that  in  turning  over 
the  thought  of  it  in  my  mind,  I  feel  shame  and  horror. 
Jesus  Christ,  my  liberator,  knows  that  I  say  the  truth,  he 
to  whom  I  often  prayed  with  tears,  who  has  given  to  me  his 
hand  in  pity  and  helped  me  up  to  himself."  He  took  great 
delight  in  the  tearful  Confessions  of  St.  Augustin,  which  he 
carried  always  in  his  pocket.  He  called  him  "  the  philos- 
opher of  Christ,"  and  "  the  sun  of  the  Church."  He  makes 
.lim  his  confessor  in  the  autobiographical  dialogue  on  the 


24  The  Renaissance. 

"Contempt  of  the  World,"  written  in  1343.  He  confesses 
in  it  as  his  greatest  fault  the  love  of  glory  and  the  desire  for 
the  immortality  of  his  name.  It  is  the  besetting  sin  of  the 
ancient  Greeks  and  Romans  and  of  all  humanists.  He 
learned  from  Augustin,  he  says,  to  care  more  for  his  salva- 
tion than  for  eloquence.  He  would  rather  be  a  Christian 
than  a  Ciceronian  ;  but  he  believed  that  Cicero  would  have 
become  a  Christian  had  he  known  Christ,  as  Augustin  be- 
lieved the  same  of  Plato. 

Petrarca  wrote  eclogues,  poetic  epistles  in  all  metres,  and 
prose  letters,  a  treatise  on  Solitude  (De  Vita  Solitarid)  a 
collection  of  anecdotes  (Rerum  Memorandaruni),  a  bio- 
graphical compilation  (De  Vitis  Virorum  Illustriunt),  three 
books  on  the  Contempt  of  the  World  (De  Contemptu 
Mundi,  also  called  Secrctum  and  De  Conflictu  Curarum 
suaruiri),  a  retrospect  and  prospect  in  the  shape  of  a  Dia- 
logue with  Augustin,  in  which  he  confesses  or  palliates  his 
faults ' ;  and  an  unfinished  epic  poem,  Africa,  a  record  of 
the  achievements  of  Scipio  Africanus,  which  awakened  but 
disappointed  sanguine  expectations. 

Petrarca  was  essentially  a  man  of  letters,  like  Erasmus, 
whom  he  resembles  in  more  than  one  respect.  He  was  an 
enthusiast  for  classical  literature  and  its  personal  embodi- 
ment. Unlike  Dante,  he  despised  scholastic  and  mystic 
learning,  and  went  further  back  to  the  well  of  pagan  an- 
tiquity. He  studied  it,  not  as  a  philologist  or  antiquarian, 
but  as  a  man  of  taste.  He  admired  the  Greek  and  Roman 
authors  for  their  eloquence,  grace,  and  finish  of  style.  He 
fully  sympathized  with  their  ruling  passion,  the  love  of 
fame,  which  became  to  him  a  substitute  for  the  favor  of 
God.  Cicero  and  Virgil  were  his  idols,  the  fathers  of  elo- 
quence, the  eyes  of  the  Latin  language.  He  spared  no  pains 
or  money  for  old  manuscripts.  He  found  several  Orations 
and  Letters  of  Cicero,  and  a  portion  of  Quintilian  which  had 
been  unknown  since  the  tenth  century,  and  stimulated  the 

1  Geiger  applies  to  this  Dialogue  the  words  of  Hettner  :  "  Tagebiicher  und 
Selbstbekenntnisse  werden,  mit  Stetigkeit  fortgesetzt,  immer  den  pluck  der 
Eitelkeit  an  sich  tragen  ;  man  sleht  vor  dent  Spiegel,  man  stellt  sick  in  kiinst- 
liche  Attituden,  man  denkt  und gestaltet  sich  als  Romanheld" 


Petrarca.  2$ 

humanists  to  imitation.  When  he  passed  an  old  convent, 
his  first  thought  was  to  hunt  up  old  books.  He  procured 
also  a  copy  of  Homer  and  several  dialogues  of  Plato,  but 
could  not  read  them.  Of  the  Christian  fathers  he  esteemed 
Augustin  most,  next  to  him  Ambrose  and  Jerome.  He 
collected  the  first  private  library,  also  coins  and  medals. 

His  chief  significance  then  consists  in  being  a  restorer  of 
the  study  of  classical  antiquity  as  a  means  of  higher  self-cul- 
ture. He  was  a  literary  Columbus,  and  showed  the  path 
to  still  greater  discoveries. 

He  enjoyed  the  full  benefit  of  his  labors,  and  received 
daily  letters  of  praise  from  all  parts  of  Italy,  from  France, 
Germany,  England,  and  Greece.  The  Emperor  Charles  IV. 
invited  him  three  times  to  Germany  that  he  might  enjoy 
his  eloquence  and  learn  from  him  lessons  of  wisdom  ;  and 
Pope  Gregory  XL,  on  hearing  of  his  death  in  1374,  ordered 
good  copies  of  all  his  books,  especially  his  Africa,  Eclogues, 
Epistles,  Invectives,  and  his  beautiful  work  on  the  Solitary 
Life.  The  next  generation  honored  him,  not  as  the  singer 
of  Laura,  but  as  the  scholar  and  sage.  The  Roman  Church 
put  a  couple  of  his  satirical  epistles  against  the  papacy  of 
Avignon  upon  the  Index  of  prohibited  books,  but  ignored 
his  worship  of  Laura  and  enthusiastic  veneration  of  the 
heathen  classics. 

Petrarca  is  now  best  known  and  read  as  an  Italian  classic, 
next  to  Dante  in  rank,  as  the  chief  lyric  poet  and  "  the  poet 
of  love."  He  thought  lightly  of  his  Italian  poetry  as  youth- 
ful plays,  and  rested  his  fame  on  his  Latin  works ;  but  these 
are  now  nearly  forgotten  ;  while  his  Canzoniere  or  Rime  is 
found  in  every  collection  of  Italian  poetry.  We  have  from 
him  317  sonnets  and  29  canzoni,  all  of  which  are  erotic  ex- 
cept 31.  In  them  he  reveals  his  heart  to  the  world,  with  all 
the  musical  charms  of  the  Italian  tongue.  His  love  poetry 
is  an  apotheosis  of  Laura,  who  was,  like  Dante's  Beatrice,  both 
a  real  and  ideal  being,  a  married  woman  with  several  children, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  a  symbol  of  beauty  and  virtue.1  She 

1  He  calls  her  "mutter"  (in  a  letter  to  Giacomo  Colonna)  and  speaks  of 
corpus  illud  egregium  multis  partubus  (not  perturbationibus)  exhaustum,  Laura 


26  The  Renaissance. 

stands  midway  between  Dante's  Beatrice  and  Boccaccio's 
Fiammetta,  less  sublime  and  heavenly  than  the  former, 
more  spiritual  and  elevated  than  the  latter.  Petrarca  saw 
Laura  for  the  first  time  in  the  church  of  Santa  Clara  at 
Avignon,  April  6,  1327,  and  lost  her  in  the  great  plague, 
April  6,  1348.  He  praised  her  beauty  and  loveliness  in  life 
with  sentimental  enthusiasm,  and  lamented  her  death  with 
inconsolable  grief.  He  anticipated  Werther's  sufferings  in 
mediaeval  spirit.  His  Platonic  love  to  Laura  was  a  sweet 
malady  of  the  soul  which  he  nursed  with  anxious  care.  It 
was  a  burning  desire  to  possess  the  impossible.  It  did  not 
protect  him  against  concubinage.  He  despised  marriage  as 
a  degrading  bondage  and  burden.  Strange  contrast  !  The 
Troubadours  and  the  Minnesingers  mostly  chose  married 
women  for  their  idols.  Their  love  was  extra-nuptial  and 
anti-matrimonial.  The  chivalrous  love  for  woman  had  its 
root  in  the  Teutonic  instinct,  and  its  crown  in  the  worship 
of  the  Queen  of  Heaven ;  it  was  a  protection  to  the  virtue 
of  woman,  and  yet  compatible  with  the  sensuality  of  man. 
The  best  feature  in  it  was  Christian,  the  worst  was  a  survival 
of  heathenism.  The  combination  is  characteristic  of  the 
morals  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  especially  of  the  Italian 
artists  and  poets  of  the  Renaissance. 

can  therefore  not  have  been  a  virgin,  nor  a  mere  allegory  for  air  (Taura),  or 
laurel-tree  (lauro,  laurus),  or  poetry,  or  virtue,  or  philosophy,  or  all  combined. 
Comp.  the  discussion  of  this  question  by  Koerting,  /.  f.,  p.  686  sqq.  Symonds 
says  (Ital.  Lit.,  I.,  92) :  "  That  Laura  was  a  real  woman,  and  that  Petrarch's 
worship  of  her  was  unfeigned  ;  that  he  adored  her  with  the  senses  and  the  heart 
as  well  as  the  head  ;  but  that  this  love  was  at  the  same  time  more  a  mood  of  the 
imagination,  a  delicate  disease,  a  cherished  wound,  to  which  he  constantly  re- 
curred as  the  most  sensitive  and  lively  wellspring  of  poetic  fancy,  than  a  down- 
right and  impulsive  passion,  may  be  clearly  seen  in  the  whole  series  of  his 
poems  and  his  autobiographical  confessions.  Laura  appears  to  have  treated 
him  with  the  courtesy  of  a  somewhat  distant  acquaintance,  who  was  aware  o* 
his  homage  and  was  flattered  by  it.  But  her  lover  enjoyed  no  privileges  of 
intimacy,  and  it  may  be  questioned  whether,  if  Petrarch  could  by  any  accident 
have  made  her  his  own,  the  fruition  of  her  love  would  not  have  been  a  serious 
interruption  to  the  happiness  of  his  life."  Comp.  Symonds,  The  Dantesqut 
and  Platonic  Ideals  of  Love,  in  the  "  Contemporary  Review  "  for  Sept.,  189x1. 


CHAPTER  V. 
BOCCACCIO   (i  3 13-1 375). 

I. — Fr.  Zambrini :  Bibliografia  Boccacesca,  Bologna,  1875. 

Boccaccio  :  Opere  volgari,  ed.  by  Moutier,  Firenze,  1827-' 34,  in  17  vols.,  8vo. 
Le  Lettere  edite  et  inedite,  ed. ,  transl. ,  and  explained  by  Fr.  Corragini,  Florence, 
1877.  There  is  no  collected  ed.  of  his  Latin  works. 

II. — Manetti :  Dantis,  Petrarch^  ac  Boccaccii  Vite,  Florentiae,  1747.  Bal- 
delli :  Vita  di  Boccaccio,  Firenze,  1806.  Tribolati :  Discorsi  letterarii  sul 
Decamerone  del  Boccaccio,  Pisa,  1873. — M.  Landau  :  G.  Bocc.  sein  Leben  und 
seine  Werke,  Stuttgart,  1877. — Attilio  Hortis  :  Studj  sulle  opere  latine  del 
Boccaccio  con  particulare  riguardo  alia  storia  della  erudizione  nel  media  evo  alle 
letterature  straniere,  Trieste,  1879  (956  pp.,  4to). — *L.  Koerting  :  Boccaccio's 
Leben  und  Werke,  Leipzig,  1880  (the  second  vol.  of  his  Gesch.  der  Ital.  Lit. 
im  Zeitalter  der  Renaissance). — Comp.  Voigt :  /.  c.,  I.,  165-186;  "  Nuova 
Enciclop.  Italiana,"  III.,  1112  sqq.  6th  ed.,  1877);  "  Encycl.  Brit.,"  III., 
842  sqq,  (gth  ed.) ;  Geiger  :  Renaissance,  pp.  448-474. 

"  Dante  is  admired,  Petrarca  is  praised,  Boccaccio  is  read." 
They  represent  three  phases  of  the  Middle  Ages  in  their 
transition  to  modern  times.  They  differ  as  widely  as  the 
three  ladies  who  controlled  their  lives  and  inspired  their 
poetry:  Beatrice  and  divine  wisdom,  Laura  and  tender 
pathos,  Fiammetta  and  carnal  passion.  Passing  from  the 
Divina  Commedia  to  the  Canzoniere,  from  the  Canzoniere  to 
the  Decamerone,  we  pass  from  a  Gothic  cathedral  to  a  Greek 
temple,  and  from  a  Greek  temple  to  a  theatre. 

Giovanni  Boccaccio  da  Certaldo,1  the  commentator  and 
biographer  of  Dante,  the  friend  of  Petrarca,  forty-seven 
years  younger  than  the  first,  nine  years  younger  than  the 

1  A  small  town  or  castle,  twenty  miles  from  Florence,  where  he  was  born, 
according  to  Filippo  Villani  ;  but  Florence  and  Paris  are  also  mentioned  as 
the  places  of  his  birth.  Petrarca  calls  him  "  Certaldese "  ;  Koerting  pleads 
for  Florence  ;  Geiger  for  Paris,  where  Boccaccio's  mother  lived  and  became 
acquainted  with  his  father  on  a  commercial  journey. 

27 


28  The  Renaissance. 

second,  ranks  as  the  third  among  the  luminaries  of  Italian 
literature  in  the  fourteenth  century.  He  is  the  founder  of 
Italian  prose,  and  the  master  of  entertaining  and  charming 
narration.  His  poetic  talent  is  far  inferior  to  that  of  Dante 
and  Petrarca,  and  he  himself  looked  up  to  them  with  un- 
envious  admiration,  but  with  the  reading  public  he  is  more 
popular  than  either.1  Dante  is  sober  and  solemn  as  an 
exile,  and  visitor  of  the  future  world  ;  Boccaccio  is  jovial 
and  good-natured  as  an  entertaining  story-teller.  The 
former  viewed  the  world  under  the  aspect  of  eternity  ;  the 
latter  under  the  aspect  of  time.  The  one  is  all  ideal ;  the 
other  all  real. 

Boccaccio  was  the  illegitimate  son  of  a  Florentine  mer- 
chant and  a  Parisian  grisette.  He  was  brought  up  first  to 
business,  and  then  to  the  legal  profession ;  but  he  disliked 
both,  and  devoted  himself  to  literature.  He  wrote  as  his 
epitaph  :  "  Studium  fuit  alma  foesis"  This  was  the  motto 
of  his  life.  He  had  no  regular  public  office,  and  lived  on  a 
moderate  patrimony.  He  often  complained  of  his  poverty. 
The  Signoria  of  Florence,  however,  sent  him  on  embassies 
to  the  Lord  of  Ravenna,  to  the  German  Emperor,  and  to 
Pope  Urban  V.  at  Avignon,  and  at  last  appointed  him  to  a 
lectureship  on  the  Divina  Commedia  with  an  annual  salary 
of  a  hundred  guilders  in  gold  (1373).  Before  he  had  finished 
the  1 7th  Canto  of  the  Inferno,  he  was  overtaken  by  death  at 
Certaldo  (Dec.  21,  1375).* 

He  was  an  unmarried  layman,  and  freely  indulged  in 
irregular  love.1  His  three  children,  of  unknown  mothers 
(Olympia,  Marcus,  and  Julius),  died  before  him.  He  spent 
several  years  in  his  youth  at  the  licentious  court  of  King 

1  Geiger  (p.  49)  :  "  In  der  Reihe  der  grossen  italienischcn  Schriftsteller  ist 
Boccaccio  nicht  bios  zeitlich  der  letzte,  sondern  auch  dem  Ckarakter  nach.  der 
schwachste,  aber  er  ist  tin  Mensch  -von  so  gldnze nder  Beg abung ,  von  so  -wunder- 
barer  Vielseitigkeit,  dass  ihm  auch  heute  noch  der  Ruhm  gebiihrt,  mit  welchem 
die  Zeitgenossenen  verschivenderisch  ihn  ilberschutteten." 

9  The  best  edition  of  his  La  Vita  di  Dante,  with  a  critical  text  and  intro- 
duction of  174  pages  by  Francesco  Marci-Leone,  appeared  at  Florence,  1888. 

"What  he  says,  perhaps  unjustly,  of  Dante,  that  he  was  "  molto  dedito  a 
lussuria,"  applies  to  him,  and  may  be  inferred  from  his  Decamerone. 


Boccaccio,  29 

Robert  of  Anjou  at  Naples,  the  patron  of  Petrarca  and  other 
men  of  letters.  He  fell  in  love  with  the  king's  natural 
daughter,  Maria,  whom  he  immortalized  as  Maria  "  Fiam- 
metta."  She  was  married  to  a  Neapolitan  nobleman  when 
he  first  saw  her  in  the  church  of  St.  Lorenzo,  March  27, 
1334,  and  remained  his  idol  till  he  left  Naples  (1341).  She 
was  to  him  what  Laura  was  to  Petrarca,  but  more  earthly 
and  carnal.  He  was  an  admirer  and  friend  of  Petrarca. 
Their  friendship  may  be  compared  to  that  between  Schiller 
and  Goethe. 

In  his  old  age  he  passed,  like  Petrarca,  through  a  certain 
conversion,  and  warned  others,  like  a  preacher,  against  the 
vanity,  luxury,  and  seductive  arts  of  women.  He  would 
fain  have  blotted  out  the  immoralities  of  his  writings  when 
it  was  too  late. 

Boccaccio  equalled  Petrarca  in  zeal  for  the  ancient  clas- 
sics. He  copied  many  of  them  with  his  own  hand  and 
bequeathed  them  to  his  father  confessor  in  trust  for  the 
Augustinian  convent  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  Florence.  He 
learned  the  elements  of  Greek,  and  employed  a  Greek  of 
Calabria  to  make  a  literal  translation  of  the  Iliad  and  Odys- 
sey for  learners.  He  lent  a  copy  of  it  to  Petrarca.  This 
was  the  beginning  of  a  series  of  translations  from  Greek 
authors.  In  his  Amorosa  Fiammetta  he  mixed  up  heathen 
gods  with  saints  and  angels,  like  the  later  humanists. 

His  Latin  works  are  mostly  collections  from  classical 
antiquity,  but  have  only  an  antiquarian  interest.1  His  most 
popular  work  is  the  Decamerone  (the  Ten  Days'  Book),  which 
he  would  gladly  have  destroyed  or  purged  of  its  immoral 
and  frivolous  elements.  It  was  written  between  1348  and 
1358.  It  is  his  poetry  in  prose.  We  may  call  it  a  Commedia 
humana,  as  contrasted  with  Dante's  Commedia  divina.  The 
Decamerone  contains  one  hundred  stories  of  love  intrigues, 
told  in  ten  days  by  ten  young  persons  (seven  ladies  and 

1  The  best  are  :  De  Genealogia  Deorum,  a  compend  of  mythology  ;  and  De 
Claris  Mulieribus,  biographies  of  104  distinguished  women,  beginning  with 
Eve,  including  the  fictitious  popess  Johanna,  and  concluding  with  a  eulogy  on 
Queen  Johanna  of  Naples,  who  was  then  still  living. 


30  The  Renaissance. 

three  gentlemen  of  Florence)  during  the  pestilence  of  1348. 
The  pestilence  is  most  vividly  described  in  the  introduction. 
The  stories  are  told  in  classical  Italian  with  southern  grace 
and  naivete,  and  range  from  the  highest  pathos  to  the  coarsest 
licentiousness.  They  are  mostly  based  on  real  life,  or  bor- 
rowed from  French  poets.  They  read  like  the  Arabian  Nights. 
We  are  led  a  few  miles  away  from  the  horror-stricken  city, 
filled  with  ghastly  corpses,  to  a  blooming  garden  with 
singing  birds  and  fresh  fountains,  where  ten  young  lovers, 
surrounded  by  a  train  of  servants  and  the  luxuries  of  medi- 
aeval society,  play  and  laugh  and  weep  over  the  adventures. 
Some  of  the  stones  shock  the  modern  sense  of  decency  and 
propriety,  yet  we  are  assured  that  "  no  stain  defiled  the 
honor  of  the  party."  The  plague,  instead  of  leading  men 
to  repentance,  inaugurated  a  reign  of  cynicism,  lawlessness, 
and  deterioration  of  manners.  The  Decamerone  reveals  a 
low  state  of  morals  among  priests  and  monks  as  well  as  lay- 
men and  women.  It  derides  marriage,  the  confessional, 
monkery,  and  the  worship  of  relics.  It  vindicates  the  sensual 
passions  and  ridicules  the  ideal  aspirations. 

No  wonder  that  the  Council  of  Trent  condemned  the  work 
for  its  immoralities,  and  still  more  for  its  anticlerical  and 
antimonastic  tone  ;  but  it  could  not  prevent  its  circulation. 
It  was  first  printed  about  1470,  and  passed  through  innu- 
merable editions  and  translations,  complete  and  expurgated. 
A  curious  expurgated  edition,  authorized  by  the  pope,  ap- 
peared in  Florence  in  1573,  which  retains  the  indecencies, 
but  changes  the  impure  personages  from  priests  and  monks 
into  laymen,  and  thus  saves  the  honor  of  the  Church.1 

1  Baldelli  mentions  eleven  editions  before  1500.  An  English  translation  ap- 
peared in  1624  under  the  title,  The  Model  of  Mirth,  Wit,  Eloquence,  and  Con- 
versation, There  are  several  German  translations,  one  by  D.  W.  Soltau,  3d 
ed.,  Berlin,  1874.  See  Manni,  Storia  del  Decamerone  (1742),  and  Landau  on 
the  sources  of  the  Decameron  (1869). 


CHAPTER  VI. 

PROGRESS   OF   HUMANISM   IN   THE   FIFTEENTH   CENTURY. 

The  seed  sown  by  Petrarca  and  Boccacio  bore  fruit  in  the 
succeeding  generation.  The  enthusiasm  for  classical  litera- 
ture, as  a  means  for  higher  culture,  seized  not  only  students, 
but  prelates,  princes,  and  smaller  lords  all  over  Italy,  espe- 
cially in  Florence,  Naples,  Venice,  and  Milan.  Hand  in 
hand  with  it  went  the  search  for  new  manuscripts,  and  the 
profitable  business  of  transcribing  and  translating.  The 
papal  schism,  which  occurred  in  1378,  started  discussion, 
and  created  a  demand  for  learned  apostolical  secretaries  and 
legates.  The  reformatory  councils  of  Pisa  (1409),  Constance 
(1414),  and  Basel  (1431)  brought  together  the  ablest  scholars 
of  different  countries,  and  sharpened  their  wits.  The  Coun- 
cil of  Ferrara-Florence  (1437),  for  the  healing  of  the  Greek 
schism,  was  attended  by  Greeks,  and  some  of  them  remained 
in  Italy  to  teach  their  native  language. 

The  interest  in  the  search  and  discovery  of  classical  litera- 
ture has  a  parallel  in  the  history  of  modern  Egyptology  and 
Assyriology.  The  Latin  and  Greek  manuscripts  were  a  reve- 
lation of  a  long-forgotten  world  to  the  scholars  of  the 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  as  the  hieroglyphic  and 
cuneiform  inscriptions  are  to  the  scholars  of  the  nineteenth 
century. 

About  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  Latin  clas- 
sics were  pretty  well  collected,  as  we  have  them  now,  through 
the  labors  of  Petrarca,  Poggio,  Filelfo,  the  liberality  of  the 
Medici  and  Pope  Nicolas  V. 

The  Greek  classics  and  Greek  Church  fathers  were  brought 
to  the  West  partly,  and  chiefly  by  Italians  who  went  to  the 

31 


32  The  Renaissance. 

East  in  search  of  manuscripts,  and  partly  by  Greeks  who 
emigrated  to  the  West  before  or  after  the  conquest  of 
Constantinople.  The  most  active  agent  in  this  field  was 
Giovanni  Aurispa,  who  did  for  Greek  literature  what  Poggio 
did  for  the  Latin.  He  bought  and  sold  with  the  shrewdness 
of  an  experienced  bookseller.  In  1423  he  returned  from 
Constantinople  to  Venice  with  two  hundred  and  thirty-eight 
volumes  of  heathen  classics,  including  Sophocles,  ^Eschylus, 
Plato,  Xenophon,  Plutarch,  Lucian.  Thus  these  treasures 
were  saved  from  ruthless  destruction  by  the  Turks,  before 
the  catastrophe  of  1453  overtook  Constantinople. 

With  the  books  were  also  imported  inscriptions,  coins, 
medals,  and  other  curiosities.  Ruins,  which  had  been  ut- 
terly neglected,  assumed  a  new  significance,  and  served  as 
interpreters  of  the  past. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  PATRONS  OF  LETTERS  AND  ARTS. — COSIMO  DE*  MEDICI. 

A  Fabroni  :    Magni  Cosmi  Medici  Vita,  Pisa,  1 789.     Compare  also  the  works 
of  Roscoe  and  Reumont  on  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  quoted  in  Ch.  I. 

It  requires  bricks  as  well  as  brains  to  build  a  church  or  a 
school.  Faith  opens  the  path,  and  secures  the  power  of 
money,  which,  as  a  means,  "  answereth  all  things,"  while  the 
love  of  it  is  "  a  root  of  all  kinds  of  evil."  Nicodemus  and 
Joseph  of  Arimathea  helped  the  impecunious  disciples. 
The  humanists  were  liberally  aided  by  rich  men  who,  with- 
out being  scholars  or  authors  themselves,  appreciated  the 
value  of  letters  and  turned  their  superfluous  wealth  to  the 
best  uses.  The  princes  needed  secretaries,  orators,  and 
poets  who  could  conduct  a  polished  correspondence,  write 
addresses,  and  compose  odes  for  festive  occasions,  and 
celebrate  their  deeds. 

Among  the  princely  patrons  of  the  new  learning,  Cosimo 
de'  Medici,  of  Florence  (1389—1464),  occupies  the  first  rank.' 
He  was  the  richest  banker  of  the  republic,  and  the  leader 
of  the  democratic  party ;  not  a  scholar  in  the  technical 
sense,  but  scholarly,  well-read,  and  deeply  interested  in 
literature  from  taste  and  ambition.  He  was  both  the 
Rothschild  and  Maecenas  of  his  age.  He  visited  Constance 
during  the  council  (1414),  travelled  extensively  in  France 
and  Germany,  married  a  Countess  Bardi,  continued  the  pros- 
perous business  of  his  father  (1429),  and  ruled  Florence,  after 
a  temporary  exile,  as  a  republican  merchant-prince,  for  thirty 
years,  without  making  the  people  feel  it.  He  severely  taxed 
the  rich,  was  not  very  scrupulous  in  the  choice  of  means,  and 

1  He  was  called  Cosimo  or  Cosmo,  after  the  saint,  on  whose  day  he  was  born 
(Cosmo  and  Damiano).  The  name  had  a  classical  and  Christian  sound. 

3  33 


34  The  Renaissance, 

occasionally  promoted  insignificant  favorites  to  places  of 
influence.  One  of  them  who  did  not  know  how  to  conduct 
himself  in  the  new  situation,  asked  his  advice,  which  was 
promptly  given  :  "  Dress  well,  and  speak  little." 

Cosimo  encouraged  scholars  by  gifts  of  money  and  the 
purchase  of  manuscripts,  without  the  air  of  condescension 
which  spoils  the  gift,  but  with  a  feeling  of  respect  and 
gratitude  for  superior  merit.  His  commercial  and  political 
connections  with  all  parts  of  Europe  enabled  him  to  secure 
the  rarest  manuscripts.  He  employed  as  his  literary  minister 
Niccold  de'  Niccoli  (1364-1437),  who  was  a  centre  of  attrac- 
tion to  literary  men  in  Florence,  and  collected,  and  in  great 
part  copied,  8,000  codices,  valued  at  4,000  sequins.1  He 
founded  the  Platonic  Academy  and  the  Medicean  Library  (the 
Bibliotheca  Medicea  Laurentiana,  adjoining  the  church  of 
San  Lorenzo),  which  now  numbers  about  12,000  manuscripts, 
some  very  rare,  superbly  written  and  illustrated.  He  encour- 
aged the  fine  arts  with  the  same  enlightened  liberality.  He 
was  a  great  admirer  of  the  saintly  painter,  Fra  Giovanni  An- 
gelico  da  Fiesole,  and  ordered  him  to  paint  the  whole  history 
of  the  crucifixion  on  one  of  the  walls  of  the  chapter-house  of 
San  Marco.  He  had  himself  represented  in  kneeling  posture 
in  a  picture  of  the  Adoration  of  the  Magi.  He  contributed 
to  churches  and  convents,  and  adorned  the  city  with  stately 
buildings.  He  infused  into  the  Medici  blood  a  love  for  po- 
lite learning  and  art,  and  had  a  worthy  successor  in  his 
grandson,  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent.  He  was  the  model  of  a 
Florentine  gentleman,  merchant,  statesman,  and  public  bene- 
factor. He  lived  for  the  welfare  of  the  republic,  and  earned 
the  title  "Pater  Patriae." 

Another  distinguished  Maecenas  was  Alfonso,  King  of 
Arragon  and  Naples,  the  special  patron  of  the  skeptical 
Valla  and  the  licentious  Beccadelli.  He  listened  with  de- 
light to  literary,  philosophical,  and  theological  lectures  and 
disputes,  which  he  arranged  in  his  library.  He  allowed  the 
humanists  full  liberty  of  speech,  and  protected  them  against 
religious  bigotry. 

1  A  zecchino  is  a  gold  coin  worth  about  9  shillings  or  $2.20. 


Cosimo  ZV  Medici.  35 

Federigo  da  Montefeltro,  Duke  of  Urbino  (d.  1482),  was 
both  a  scholar  and  a  patron  of  scholars,  and  an  admirer  of 
patristic  as  well  as  classical  learning.  He  loved  also  music, 
painting,  and  architecture.  He  erected  costly  buildings, 
and  founded,  at  an  expense  of  40,000  ducats,  a  library, 
which  was  afterwards  (1657)  incorporated  in  the  Vatican 
Library.  He  was  not  surpassed  in  liberality  by  any  prince 
of  his  age,  except  Pope  Nicolas  V.,  who  commanded  richer 
resources. 

Cardinals  vied  with  princes  in  encouraging  the  humanists, 
and  some  of  them,  as  Bessarion,  Giuliano  de'  Cesarini, 
Gerardo  Landriani,  were  men  of  learning.  The  popes, 
from  the  time  of  Nicolas  V.,  rewarded  the  humanists  and 
artists  by  grants  of  money,  annuities,  secretaryships,  and 
bishoprics. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

POPE   NICOLAS   V.   AS  A   PATRON    OF    LEARNING    AND    ART. 

Biographies  of  Nicolas  V.,  by  Manetti  (in  Muratori,  Script.  T.  III.,  p.  2), 
Vespasiano  (in  Angelo  Mai's  Spicilegium,  I.,  24  sqq.\  Dom  Georgius  (1742). 
Zanelli  (1855),  Sforza  (1883). 

Comp.  Voigt,  II.,  53  sqq.  ;  Geiger,  pp.  121  sqq.  ;  Milman,  Lai.  Christianity, 
Bk.  XIII.,  Ch.  77;  Creighton,  II.,  329-343  ;  Pastor,  I.,  280-490. 

Nicolas  V.  (1447-1455)  marks  the  triumph  of  humanism 
at  the  centre  of  the  Roman  Church.  He  was  the  first  and 
best  pope  of  the  Renaissance,  and  its  most  liberal  supporter. 

Thomas  Parentucelli,  called  Thomas  of  Sarzana,  was  born 
of  poor  parents  in  1398,  studied  at  Bologna,  took  the  degree 
of  Master  of  Arts  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  and  became  Doctor 
of  Theology  at  twenty-two.  He  served  as  private  tutor  in 
Florence,  and  caught  the  spirit  of  this  Italian  Athens.  At 
the  age  of  twenty-five  he  was  made  steward  of  Cardinal 
Niccolo  Abergati,  and  ordained  priest.  He  was  for  twenty 
years  the  inseparable  companion  of  this  prelate,  who  com- 
bined ascetic  piety  with  interest  in  literature,  and  followed 
him  on  his  embassies  to  France,  England,  Burgundy, 
Germany,  and  Northern  Italy.  On  these  journeys  he 
acquired  political  wisdom,  and  collected  rare  books,  among 
which  were  Lactantius,  Gregory  of  Nazianzus,  Irenseus, 
twelve  epistles  of  Ignatius,  and  an  epistle  of  Polycarp. 
He  copied  many  manuscripts  with  his  own  hand.  He  took 
a  leading  part  at  the  Council  of  Ferrara  and  Florence  in  the 
debates  with  the  Greeks  on  the  procession  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  He  was  made  Apostolical  sub-deacon  by  Eugene  IV. 
(1443),  with  a  salary  of  three  hundred  ducats,  and  sent  on 
foreign  embassies.  In  1444  he  was  appointed  Bishop  of 
Bologna,  and  in  1446  cardinal.  But  he  was  still  very  poor 

36 


Pope  Nicolas  V.  37 

until  Cosimo  de'  Medici  furnished  him  with  all  the  money  he 
needed.  He  arranged  his  library,  and  afterwards  eclipsed  it 
by  his  own  at  Rome. 

On  the  death  of  Eugene,  in  1447,  Thomas  reached  the 
highest  dignity  of  the  Church,  and  assumed  the  name  of 
Nicolas  V.,  in  honor  of  his  saintly  patron.  The  year  of 
jubilee,  1450,  at  which  Frederick  III.  was  married  and 
crowned  Emperor  of  Germany,  brought  enormous  treasures 
to  Rome.  In  the  bank  of  the  Medici  alone  100,000  florins 
were  deposited  for  the  papacy.  He  was  now  enabled  to 
carry  out  his  double  passion  for  architecture  and  literature. 
The  recollection  of  his  former  poverty  made  him  all  the 
more  liberal  to  indigent  scholars.  He  was  willing  to  spend 
all  his  money  for  books  and  buildings.  "  He  was  an  honest, 
sincere,  virtuous,  ardent,  and  somewhat  choleric  man,  unsel- 
fish, and  liberal  even  to  profusion,  in  whom  the  humanistic 
spirit — its  love  of  letters,  its  love  of  fame — almost  prevailed 
over  the  churchly,  and  cooled  or  neutralized  the  Christian."  * 
He  cared  more  for  scholars  and  architects  than  for  monks 
and  theologians  ;  he  loved  pomp  and  splendor  in  all  things. 
Yet  he  cannot  be  charged,  like  so  many  other  popes,  with 
simony  and  nepotism ;  nor  did  he  neglect  his  spiritual 
duties. 

Nicolas  made  Rome  the  literary  centre  of  Christendom. 
His  reign  was  a  jubilee  of  architects  and  humanists.  He  had 
an  open  door  and  purse  for  worthy  scholars.  He  gave  them 
employment  as  transcribers,  translators,  or  secretaries  at 
liberal  salaries,  but  he  made  them  work  night  and  day.  He 
sent  agents  to  all  parts  of  Italy  and  other  countries,  even  to 
Russia  and  England,  in  search  of  rare  books,  and  had  them 
copied  on  parchment,  and  luxuriously  bound  in  Russia 
leather  or  velvet  with  silver  clasps.  He  thus  collected  the 
works  of  Homer,  Herodotus,  Thucydides,  Xenophon,  Plato, 
Aristotle,  Polybius,  Diodorus  Siculus,  Appian,  Philo 
Judaeus,  and  of  Greek  fathers,  as  Eusebius,  Basil,  Gregory 
Nazianzus,  Chrysostom,  Cyril,  and  Dionysius  the  Areopagite. 
He  kindled  a  feverish  enthusiasm  for  the  translation  of 

1  Woolsey,  in  "  The  New  Englander  "  for  Jan.,  1865,  p.  69  sq. 


38  The  Renaissance. 

Greek  authors  among  the  best  scholars,  as  Guarino,  Valla, 
Poggio,  Perotto,  Filelfo,  Theodore  of  Gaza,  George  of 
Trebisond,  and  many  others  whom  he  employed.  He  was 
determined  to  enrich  the  West  with  translations  of  all  the 
surviving  monuments  of  Hellenic  literature.  He  paid  five 
hundred  scudi  to  Valla  for  a  Latin  version  of  Thucydides. 
He  presented  to  Nicolas  Perotti,  for  his  translation  of  Po- 
lybius,  a  purse  of  five  hundred  new  papal  ducats,  with  the 
remark  that  the  sum  was  not  equal  to  his  merits.  He 
offered  ten  thousand  gold  pieces  for  a  translation  of  Homer, 
but  in  vain  ;  for  Marsuppini  and  Oratius  only  furnished  frag- 
ments of  the  Iliad,  and  Valla's  translation  of  the  first  sixteen 
books  was  a  paraphrase  in  prose.  He  gave  Manetti,  his 
secretary  and  biographer,  though  absent  from  Rome,  a 
salary  of  six  hundred  ducats,  without  special  obligation,  and 
before  he  had  finished  a  book  in  defense  of  Christianity 
against  Jews  and  Gentiles,  and  an  original  translation  of  the 
Scriptures.  No  such  liberal  and  enlightened  friend  of  books 
ever  sat  on  the  chair  of  St.  Peter. 

His  passion  for  books  was  equalled  by  his  passion  for 
building.  He  began  a  systematic  reconstruction  of  the 
churches  and  palaces  of  Rome,  which  had  fallen  into  decay 
since  the  transfer  of  the  papacy  to  Avignon.  He  conceived 
the  plan  of  rebuilding  St.  Peter's,  which  was  afterwards  car- 
ried out  by  Julius  II.  and  Leo  X. 

He  wished  to  impress  every  visitor  to  Rome  with  the 
majesty  and  durability  of  the  Roman  religion.  But  in 
strange  contrast  with  his  love  for  ancient  literature  and  art, 
he  destroyed  some  of  the  noblest  remains  of  ancient  archi- 
tecture. He  made  the  Colosseum  a  quarry.  Michel  Angelo 
did  the  same.  It  is  asserted  that  there  is  hardly  a  stone  in 
St.  Peter's  that  is  not  taken  from  the  Colosseum  and  ancient 
palaces  and  villas  of  the  heathen  emperors. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE    VATICAN    LIBRARY. 

Nicolas  was  the  founder  of  the  modern  Vatican  Library, 
and  thereby  became  a  permanent  benefactor  of  future  gen- 
erations. This  is  his  greatest  monument.  For  that  library 
with  its  later  additions  is  the  most  valuable  in  the  world  for 
rare  manuscripts  in  Oriental,  Greek,  Latin,  and  ecclesiastical 
literature.  No  such  library  had  existed  since  the  days  of 
the  Ptolemies  in  Alexandria. 

There  were,  of  course,  older  pontifical  libraries  and  archives, 
first  in  the  Lateran,  afterwards  in  the  Vatican  palace,  for  the 
use  of  the  popes,  their  secretaries,  theologians,  and  canon- 
ists.1 Jerome  first  mentions,  at  the  close  of  the  fourth 
century,  the  chartarium  ecclesice  Romance,  afterwards  called 
scrinium  or  scrinia  sedis  apostolicce  (because  the  books 
were  kept  in  closed  cases).  But  the  earlier  collections  were 
destroyed  by  fire,  or  the  ravages  of  war,  or  scattered  among 
the  pope's  relations.  A  portion  found  its  way  into  the 
Borghese  family.  The  books  of  the  Avignon  popes  were 
transferred  to  Rome  by  Martin  V.  The  papal  Regesta 
and  papal  correspondence  from  the  time  of  Innocent  III. 
are  preserved,  and  constitute  the  secret  Archives  of  the 
Vatican,  which  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  Vatican 
Library. 

Nicolas  intended  the  Vatican  Library  for  the  common 
use  of  all  scholars.2  He  bought  for  it  about  5,000  volumes 

1  Assemani  and  De  Rossi  date  the  Vatican  Library  from  the  Gospel  of  Mark, 
which  was  written  in  Rome  for  Romans,  and  from  the  parchments  which  Paul 
as  a  prisoner  in  Rome  ordered  Timothy  to  bring  from  Troas  (z  Tim.  iv  :  13). 
This  is  certainly  very  far-fetched. 

8  "  Pro  communi  doctorum  virorum  commodo."  But  this  intention  has  only 
recently  been  carried  out. 

39 


40  The  Renaissance. 

of  valuable  classical  and  biblical  manuscripts  at  an  estimated 
cost  of  40,000  scudi — an  enormous  collection  for  those  days.1 
He  had  besides  a  private  library  consisting  chiefly  of  Latin 
classics.  No  other  library  of  that  age  reached  1,000  volumes. 
Bessarion  had  only  600  volumes,  Niccoli  in  Florence  800, 
Federico  of  Urbino  772  (which  cost  him  30,000  ducats). 

Among  the  original  Vatican  manuscripts  was  the  oldest 
and  most  important  Codex  of  the  Greek  Bible  (Codex  Vati- 
canus,  No.  1209),  which  was  probably  imported  from  the 
East  (perhaps  by  or  through  Cardinal  Bessarion),  but  was 
long  unknown  or  only  imperfectly  compared  till  recent 
•'  times,  when  it  has  done  more  than  any  other  authority  to 
settle  the  oldest  and  purest  text  of  the  Greek  Testament." 

Nicolas  could  say  with  truth  to  the  cardinals  on  his 
death-bed,  that  he  accumulated  his  literary  treasures  not  by 
avarice,  simony,  or  parsimony,  but  "  only  through  the  grace 
of  the  Creator,  the  peace  of  the  Church,  and  the  tranquillity 
of  his  pontificate." 

His  immediate  successors  did  not  share  his  literary  taste. 
Calixtus  III.,  who  appreciated  only  canon  law,  and  tried  to 

1  Giovanni  Tortelli,  the  first  librarian  who  made  a  catalogue  (unfortunately 
lost),  mentions  9,000  volumes  (volumi),  but  Pius  II.  only  3,000,  Manetti  and 
Vespasiano  5,000.  The  last  number  is  accepted  as  the  most  likely  by  Voigt 
(II.,  207  sy.\  Pastor  (I.  417),  and  Geiger  (p.  125). 

*  The  New  Testament  from  Matthew  to  Hebrews  ix  :  14  (pp.  1235-1518  of 
the  Codex)  has  been  reproduced  by  photographic  process  at  Rome  in  1889 : 
H  NEA  A1AQHKH  Novum  Test,  e  Codice  Valicano  J2og  nalivi  textus  Greed 
primo  omnium  pholographice  repraesentatum  auspice  Leone  XIII.  Pont.  Max. 
curante  Jos.  Cozza-Luzi  Abate  Basiliano,  S.  Rom.  Ecclesice  Vicebibliothecario. 
Roma  e  Bibl.  Vatic,  agente  photographo  Danesi.  MDCCCLXXXIX.  Only 
100  copies  were  printed.  The  Old  Testament  will  follow.  This  real  fac- 
simile reproduces  not  only  the  original  text  (B*,  or  manus  prima),  but  also  the 
corrections  of  the  two  later  hands  (B2  and  B3),  and  is  altogether  more  trust- 
worthy than  the  quasi-facsimile  edition  of  Vercellone  and  Cozza,  published  in 
1868  (which  superseded  the  worthless  print  of  Angelo  Mai,  1857).  I  made  a 
careful  comparison  of  the  original  and  the  photograph,  in  May,  1890,  in  the 
Vatican  Library,  and  communicated  the  results  in  an  article  in  "The  Sunday- 
School  Times,"  Philadelphia.  May  17,  1890.  Comp.  the  review  of  Dr.  O.  von 
Gebhardt  in  the  "  Theol.  Literaturzeitung, "  for  August  9,  1890  (vol.  xv.,  16). 
On  the  value  and  history  of  the  Vatican  Codex,  see  Schaff,  Companion  to  the 
Greek  Text,  pp.  113  sijq.,  425  sqq.,  and  Gregory,  Prolegomena  to  Tischendorf's 
8th  ed.  of  the  Greek  Test.,  Pars  I.  (1884),  pp.  358-366. 


The  Vatican  Library.  41 

rouse  Europe  against  the  Turks,1  Pius  II.  (although  himself 
a  scholar),  and  Paul  II.,  did  nothing  for  the  increase  of  the 
library.  But  Sixtus  IV.  (1471-1484)  deserves  the  name  of 
the  second  founder  of  the  Vatican  Library.  He  organized, 
enlarged,  and  endowed  it  with  a  permanent  fund,  appointed 
two  famous  scholars,  Bussi  and  Platina,  as  prefects  with  a 
liberal  salary,  and  separated  the  books  from  the  documentary 
archives  (the  bibliotheca  secretci}?  Sixtus  V.  (1585-1590) 
built  the  magnificent  halls  which  are  richly  ornamented  with 
frescoes. 

Several  libraries  were  subsequently  incorporated  in  the 
Vatican.  The  largest  of  these  additions  are  the  collection 
of  Fulvius  Ursinus  (1600)  ;  the  Bibliotheca  Palatina,  of 
Heidelberg  (1632),  which  was  captured  by  Tilly  and  pre- 
sented to  the  Pope  by  Elector  Maximilian  I.  of  Bavaria  ;  the 
Bibliotheca  Urbinas  (1657),  founded  by  Federigo  da  Monte 
Feltro,  Duke  of  Urbino  (d.  1482),  the  library  of  the  Convent 
of  Bobbio  (1621),  the  Bibliotheca  Reginensis  or  Alexandrina 
Christina  (1690),  once  the  property  of  Queen  Alexandra- 
Christina  of  Sweden,  the  learned  daughter  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  and  the  Bibliotheca  Ottoboniana,  which  Pope 
Alexander  VIII.  purchased  in  1746  from  the  Ottobuoni 
family. 

The  library  was  injured  by  the  barbarous  sack  of  Rome 
in  1527,  transferred  in  part  to  Paris  during  the  wars,  of  the 
French  Revolution  but  restored  after  1814,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  small  portion  of  the  Palatinate  Library  (the  Ger- 
man manuscripts),  which  were  returned  to  Heidelberg. 

Rome  was  formerly  the  chief  market  of  books — the  Leip- 
zig of  the  Middle  Ages  ;  but  after  the  transfer  of  the  papacy 
to  Avignon  the  city  passed  into  a  state  of  semi-barbaric  con- 
fusi<?n  until  the  time  of  Nicolas  V.,  when  she  again  resumed 

1  Calixtus  III.,  according  to  Vespasiano,  regarded  the  accumulation  of  books 
by  his  predecessor  as  a  waste  of  the  treasures  of  the  Church  of  God,  gave  away  a 
couple  of  hundred  volumes  to  the  old  Cardinal  Isidores  of  Kiew,  and  melted  the 
silver  ornaments  of  many  manuscripts  into  coin  for  a  war  against  the  Turks. 
Voigt,  II.,  209.  But  this  report  seems  to  be  at  least  exaggerated,  and  is  doubted 
by  Pastor,  I.,  505  sqq. 

3  On  the  merits  of  Sixtus  IV.  for  the  library  see  Pastor,  II.,  564-570. 


42  The  Renaissance. 

her  literary  supremacy  till  the  period  of  the  Reformation,  to 
be  left  behind  in  turn  by  Venice,  Leipzig,  Paris,  London, 
and  New  York. 

Valuable  public  libraries  were  also  founded  during  the 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  in  Florence,  Venice,  Urbino, 
Milan,  and  other  Italian  cities.  The  Bibliotheca  Medicea 
Laurentiana  at  Florence,  and  the  Ambrosiana  at  Milan,  are 
the  richest  in  ancient  manuscripts,  next  to  the  Vatican,  and 
contain  most  beautiful  illustrated  copies  of  Homer,  Virgil, 
Cicero  (Orations,  and  Familiar  Letters],  St.  Augustin 
(The  City  of  God],  Dante  (The  Divina  Commedid),  and 
other  pagan  and  Christian  classics,  to  which  scholars 
must  still  resort  for  the  purest  texts.  But  for  printed  books 
the  Italian  libraries  are  surpassed  by  those  of  Paris,  London, 
Vienna,  Berlin,  Munich,  and  other  cities. 

The  great  public  libraries  are  the  cathedrals  of  modern 
times. 

NOTES. 

The  Vatican  Library  contains  now  over  30,000  MSS.,  which  are  the  most 
valuable  part,  and  about  100,000  printed  works.  The  latter  have  not  yet  been 
properly  catalogued,  and  hence  I  heard  various  estimates  even  from  officials.  A 
splendid  folio  of  fac-simile  specimens  of  rare  MSS.  was  published  by  the  Propa- 
ganda Fidei  in  commemoration  of  the  Jubilee  of  Leo  XIII.  in  1888. 

Quite  distinct  from  the  Vatican  Library  proper,  and  in  a  dozen  or  more  sep- 
arate rooms  on  a  lower  floor,  are  the  Papal  Archives  (Archivio  secreto  delta  Santa 
Sede),  which  contain  the  Papal  Regesta  (a  regerendo,  or  Regestra,  Registra,  Regis- 
trum,  a  registrando),  the  correspondence  of  the  popes  and  their  legates,  and  other 
documents  especially  relating  to  the  Curia.  The  Regesta  are  unbroken  from 
the  time  of  Innocent  III.  (1198)  ;  three  earlier  documents,  one  of  Gregory  VII. 
and  two  of  John  VIII.,  are  mere  copies. 

There  was  formerly  much  well-founded  complaint  of  the  illiberal  administra- 
tion of  these  literary  treasures  ;  but  since  the  year  1880,  by  order  of  the 
scholarly  Pope  Leo  XIII.,  they  have  been  made  accessible  to  scholars  on  proper 
recommendation  for  four  hours  in  the  morning  on  about  two  hundred  days  of 
the  year.  The  use  of  the  Archives  is  more  restricted,  and  requires  a  special  per- 
mission from  the  Pope,  or  the  Cardinal  Librarian,  on  a  written  application.*  Leo 
XIII.  has  also  ordered  the  preparation  of  a  printed  Catalogue,  which  was  begun 
with  the  Catalogue  of  the  Palatinate  Library,  as  a  contribution  to  the  fifth 
centenary  of  the  Heidelberg  University  in  1886. 

A  full  history  of  the  Vatican  Library  and  Archives  is  still  wanting,  but  there 
are  valuable  contributions,  as  follows  :  J.  B.  de  Rossi  (the  well  known  archaeol- 
ogist and  writer  on  the  Catacombs) :  De  origine  hisloria  indicibus  Scrinii  et 
Bibliothecce  Apostolica  commenlatio  (to  Boniface  VIII.),  Rom.,  1 886  (Prolego- 


The  Vatican  Library,  43 

mena  to  the  first  \  olume  of  the  printed  Catalogue  of  the  Palatinate  Library,  pp. 
11-132)  ;  E.  Miintz  :  La  bibliotheque  du  Vatican  au  XVI'-  siecle.  Notes  et  docu  • 
ments,  Paris,  1886  ;  Miintz  and  Fabre  :  La  bibliolh^que  du  Vatican  au  XV*- 
siecle  d'apres  des  documents  ine'dits,  Paris,  1887  ;  Franc.  Ehrle  (S.  J.) :  Zur 
Geschichte  des  Schatzes,  der  Bibliothek  und  des  Archivs  der  Pdpste  im  i^ten 
Jahrh.,  in  Denifle-Ehrle,  "Archiv  fiir  Lit.  und  Kirchengesch.  des  Mittelalters," 
I.  1-48,  228-364  ;  II.  1-105  >  and  Ehrle  :  Historia  Bibliotheca  Ron.  Pontificum 
turn  Bonifatiance  turn  Avenionensis  enarrata  et  illustrata,  Rom.,  1890  (the  best, 
but  goes  down  only  to  Martin  V.).  On  the  Greek  MSS.,  two  articles  of  Batifol : 
La  Vaticane,  in  "  Revue  des  questions  historiques,"  Paris,  1889.  Information 
is  also  given  in  the  Prolegomena  to  the  Bened.  ed.  of  the  Regestum  dementis 
Papa  V.,  vol.  I.,  Rom.,  1885.  D.  Greg.  Palmieri,  one  of  the  sub-achivarians, 
gives  a  list  of  the  papal  Regesta  from  Innocent  III.  to  Clement  VIII.  (i  198-1605) 
in  Ad  Vaticani  Archivi  Roman.  Pontijicum  Regesta  Manductio,  Rom.,  1884, 
pp.  xxviii.  and  175. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  ITALIAN   HUMANISTS  OF  THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY — 

SALUTATO,  MARSIGLIO,  BRUNI,  POGGIO,  TRAVERSARI, 

FILELFO,  VALLA. 

We  add  brief  notices  of  the  chief  promoters  of  humanism 
in  the  first  half  of  the  fifteenth  century.1 

Coluccio  (i.e.  Niccol6)  Salutato  (1330-1406),  like  Petrarca, 
the  son  of  an  exile  from  Florence,  became  apostolical  secre- 
tary to  Pope  Urban  V.,  and  since  1375  Chancellor  of  the 
Republic  of  Florence.  He  wrote  Latin  eclogues  and  elegies, 
lives  of  Dante,  Petrarca,  and  Boccaccio,  a  Latin  version  of 
the  Divina  Commedia,  and  an  epic  on  the  wars  of  Pyrrhus. 
He  collected  a  library  of  six  hundred  volumes.  He  replaced 
the  barbarous  Latin  of  the  Middle  Ages  by  the  classical 
Latin  of  the  Augustan  age.  He  was  the  first  to  acquire  a 
collection  of  complete  copies  of  Cicero's  Letters,  and  accom- 
panied them  with  valuable  glosses.  The  MS.  is  preserved  in 
the  Laurentian  Library  at  Florence.  He  improved  the  text 
of  Seneca,  and  contended  that  this  philosopher  could  not 
have  been  the  author  of  the  tragedies  ascribed  to  him.  This 
was  the  beginning  of  literary  criticism  in  philology. 

Luigi  Marsiglio  (1342-1394),  a  pupil  of  Petrarca  (who  pre- 
sented him  with  Augustin's  Confessions  as  a  weapon 
against  the  atheistic  Averroists),  was  a  priest  and  preacher  of 
the  Dominican  order,  an  admired  theological  and  classical 
scholar,  and  stood  at  the  head  of  a  free  academy  in  Florence 
whose  members  met  in  the  convent  Santo  Spirito  to  discuss 
the  merits  of  classical  literature  and  philosophy.  He  wrote 

1  For  further  details  in  this  section  I  refer  chiefly  to  Tiraboschi,  Voigt,  Grego- 
rovius,  and  Geiger. 

44 


Italian  Humanists  of  the  Fifteenth  Century.  45 

little,  but  his  hearers  thought  him  a  fountain  of  all  knowl- 
edge. 

Giovanni  Villani,  the  historian  of  Florence  (1280-1348), 
was  a  merchant  and  held  various  political  and  diplomatic 
offices.  He  leaned  to  the  Guelf  party.  He  knew  and  es- 
teemed the  ancient  historians,  but  wrote  in  the  Tuscan 
dialect.  His  Chronicle  includes  an  account  of  the  Papal 
jubilee  in  1300,  which  he  himself  attended.  He  was  im- 
pressed with  the  thought  that  Rome  was  declining  and  his 
native  Florence  rising,  and  ready  for  great  things.  He  is 
not  a  critical  or  philosophical  historian,  but  an  agreeable 
narrator,  and,  in  spite  of  apparent  superficiality,  he  is  trust- 
worthy in  Florentine  and  other  Italian  events  down  to  the 
plague  of  1348.  His  brother,  Matteo,  continued  the  history 
to  1363,  and  his  nephew,  Filippo,  to  1365.' 

Leonardo  Bruni  (1369-1444),  a  pupil  of  Chrysoloras,  gives 
as  an  idea  of  the  extraordinary  sensation  caused  by  the  re- 
vival of  the  Greek  language  after  a  slumber  of  seven  hundred 
years,  and  the  rare  opportunity  afforded  of  acquiring  it 
from  such  a  teacher.  Bruni  left  all  his  other  studies  for  the 
language  of  Homer,  Plato,  and  Demosthenes.  He  acquired 
great  fame  by  his  literary  and  political  activity.  He  was 
papal  secretary  in  Rome  and  for  a  time  chancellor  of  Flor- 
ence, and  wrote  letters,  orations,  histories,  philosophical 
essays,  and  translations  from  the  Greek.  He  was  a  pious 
Catholic,  deplored  the  schisms,  and  desired  the  reunion  of 
Christendom.2 

Francesco  Poggio  Bracciolini  (1380-1459)  was  secretary  of 
Martin  V.,  then  of  Nicolas  V.,  and  lived  mostly  in  Florence 
and  Rome.  He  was  the  best-known  humanist  of  his  day, 
famous  for  his  licentious  Facetice,  and  his  letters.  He  had  an 
unbounded  passion  for  classical  antiquity,  and  for  literary  con- 
troversy. He  excelled  chiefly  in  Latin,  but  knew  also  Greek 
and  a  little  Hebrew.  He  was  an  enthusiastic  book-hunter. 
He  came  to  Constance  as  papal  secretary,  and  made  excur- 

1  Istorie  Florentine,  in  many  editions,  one  of  Milan,  1848,  in  seven  volumes, 
another  at  Triest,  1858. 

8  Leonardi  Bruni  Aretini  Epislolte,  ed.  Mehus,  Flor.,  1742,  2  vols. 


46  T/te  Renaissance. 

sions  to  the  neighboring  Benedictine  abbeys  of  Reichenau, 
Weingarten,  and  St.  Gall,  in  search  of  old  manuscripts.  He 
found  at  St.  Gall  valuable  books  covered  with  dust,  es- 
pecially a  complete  copy  of  Quintilian's  Institutio,  which 
he  copied  with  his  own  hand  in  fifty-three  days.  In  Cluny 
and  other  French  convents,  he  discovered  new  orations  of 
Cicero.  He  also  visited  Cologne,  and  "  barbarous  England," 
and  translated  several  Greek  authors. 

Although  in  the  service  of  the  Curia,  during  a  momentous 
period  for  popes  and  anti-popes  and  reformatory  councils, 
Poggio  had  no  interest  in  ecclesiastical  affairs  and  remained  a 
layman  in  priestly  garments.  He  detested  and  ridiculed 
the  monks,  and  undermined  respect  for  the  church  which 
supported  him.  In  his  Dialogue  against  Hypocrisy  he 
gathered  a  number  of  scandalous  stories  of  the  tricks  and 
frauds  practised  by  monks  in  the  name  of  religion.  He  wit- 
nessed the  martyrdom  of  Jerome  of  Prague  (1415),  and 
described  his  heroic  courage  as  being  superior  to  that  of 
Mutius  Scavola  in  suffering  his  hand  to  be  burned,  and  of 
Socrates  in  drinking  the  hemlock.  He  was  warned  to  be 
more  careful  in  praising  heretics.  He  had  keen  wit,  a  bitter 
tongue,  and  loose  habits.  He  lived  with  a  concubine,  who 
bore  him  fourteen  children,  and  when  reproached  for  it,  he 
frivolously  replied  that  he  only  imitated  the  common  habit  of 
the  clergy.  In  1433,  at  the  age  of  fifty-four,  he  left  his  con- 
cubine and  married  a  Florentine  maiden  of  eighteen,  by  whom 
he  had  four  children.  His  Facetitz,  or  jest-book,  is  a  collec- 
tion of  amusing  and  obscene  stories  which  he  and  his  friends 
in  the  Papal  Chancery  used  to  tell  in  leisure  moments,  and 
acquired  immense  popularity.1 

Ambrogio  Traversari  (1386-1439),  General  of  the  Camal- 
duensian  order  (since  1431),  combined  ascetic  piety  with 
interest  in  heathen  literature,  and  daily  associated  with  men 
of  different  views  and  habits.  He  collected  238  manuscripts 
in  Venice.  He  translated  from  the  Greek  Fathers,  and  took  a 
leading  part  in  the  discussions  with  the  Orientals  at  the  union 

1  Opera  Poggii,  Basil.,  1513,  and  other  editions.  Epistola  Poggii  Florentini, 
ed.  Tonelli,  Florence,  1832,  '59,  '61,  3  vols.  Shepherd's  Life  of  Poggio, 
Italian  ed.  enlarged  by  Tonelli,  Florence,  1825,  2  vols. 


Italian  Humanists  of  the  Fifteenth  Century.  47 

Council  of  Ferrara.  He  was,  perhaps,  the  first  monk  since 
the  days  of  Jerome  who  learned  a  little  Hebrew.  There  was 
in  him  a  strange  conflict  between  monastic  humility  and 
humanistic  love  of  fame.  He  revered  the  Church  Fathers, 
and  yet  liked  to  quote  from  profane  authors.1 

Carlo  Marsuppini,  of  Arezzo  (hence  called  Carlo  Aretino), 
belonged  to  the  same  circle,  but  was  an  open  heathen,  who 
died  without  confession  and  sacrament.  He  was  neverthe- 
less highly  esteemed  as  teacher  and  chancellor  of  Florence, 
and  honorably  buried  in  the  church  of  Santa  Croce  (1463).* 
He  astonished  his  pupils  by  quotations  of  classical  authors 
from  the  rich  stores  of  his  memory.  Nicolas  V.  called  him 
to  Rome  as  translator  of  Homer,  but  he  remained  in  Flor- 
ence, a  faithful  adherent  of  the  Medici. 

Francesco  Filelfo,  or  Philelphus  (1398-1481),  was  one  of  the 
first  Latin  and  Greek  scholars,  and  much  admired  and  much 
hated  by  his  contemporaries.  He  had  a  varied  fortune 
during  a  long  life.  He  visited  Greece,  married  for  his  first 
wife  the  daughter  of  John  Chrysoloras,  returned  to  Italy 
with  a  rich  supply  of  manuscripts,  taught  at  Venice  and 
Bologna  for  several  years,  and  was  Professor  of  eloquence 
and  of  Greek  in  the  University  of  Florence,  where  he  had  as 
many  as  four  hundred  hearers  of  all  ranks  and  nationalities, 
including  two  future  popes  (Nicolas  V.  and  ^Eneas  Sylvius). 
He  made  many  enemies  by  his  excessive  self-assertion  and 
poisonous  tongue,  and  involved  himself  in  scandalous  literary 
feuds  with  Niccol6,  Poggio,  Traversari,  and  the  Medici  fam- 
ily. He  joined  the  aristocratic  faction  which  banished 
Cosimo  de'  Medici  in  1433  ;  but  when  the  Medicean  party 
triumphed  in  the  next  year,  he  retired  to  Siena  and  was  ban- 
ished from  Florentine  territory.  Cosimo  afterwards  tried  to 
conciliate  him  through  Traversari,  but  Filelfo  proudly  re- 
fused, writing  to  Traversari :  "  Cosimo  uses  the  dagger  and 
poison  against  me  ;  I  use  my  talent  and  pen  against  him.  I 
want  not  Cosimo's  friendship,  and  despise  his  enmity."  At 
last,  however,  after  many  changes  of  residence,  he  was  recon- 

1  Episloltz  Ambrogii  Traversarii,  ed.  Mehus,  Flor.,  1749. 
*  A  monument  was  also  erected  to  his  honor  in  the  same  church  which  is  the 
pantheon  of  Florentine  geniuses.     Geiger  gives  an  illustration  of  it,  p.  98. 


48  The  Renaissance. 

ciled  to  the  Medici  family,  and  accepted  in  his  old  age  an 
invitation  from  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent  to  the  chair  of  Greek 
in  Florence. 

Filelfo  combined  the  worst  and  best  features  of  the  hu- 
manists. He  was  conceited,  mean,  and  selfish.  He  thought 
himself  equal  if  not  superior  to  Virgil  and  Cicero.1  He 
rivalled  Poggio  in  malignity  and  indecency  of  satire  and  in- 
vective. He  deemed  no  stipend  equal  to  his  merits.  He 
was  always  begging  or  levying  contributions  on  princes  by 
his  poetry,  and  yet  kept  several  servants  and  six  horses.  He 
had,  however,  a  family  of  twenty-four  children  from  his 
three  wives.  He  was  ungrateful  to  his  benefactors  and 
treacherous  to  his  friends.  By  his  longevity  he  binds  to- 
gether two  generations  before  and  after  the  invention  of 
printing,  and  saw  his  numerous  Latin  and  Greek  poems, 
orations,  fables,  meditations,  and  epistles  multiplied  by  the 
press.4 

Guarino  of  Verona  (1370-1460),  a  pupil  of  Chrysoloras, 
visited  Constantinople,  taught  Greek  in  several  cities  of 
Italy,  and  acted  as  one  of  the  interpreters  at  the  Council  of 
Ferrara.  He  trained  many  young  men,  even  from  England 
and  Hungary,  and  secured  their  esteem  and  gratitude.  He 
was  more  free  from  envy,  jealousy,  bitterness,  and  im- 
moderate love  of  fame  than  most  humanists  of  his  age.  He 
wrote  a  Greek  and  Latin  Grammar  for  the  use  of  his  pupils, 
a  number  of  translations,  poems,  and  letters.  Nicolas  V. 
engaged  him  to  translate  Strabo's  geography,  and  paid  him 
a  thousand  scudi  for  two  parts  ;  the  third  part  Guarino  sold 
to  a  gentleman  of  Venice  after  the  pope's  death  (1455). 

Vittorino  Rambaldoni  da  Feltre  (1378-1446)  wrote  very 
little,  but  was  the  prince  of  schoolmasters  who  trained  the 
character  as  well  as  the  intellect.  He  taught  many  pupils 

1  He  thus  sounds  his  praise  : 

' '  Quod  si  Virgilius  superat  me  earminis  ullis 
Laudibus,  orator  illo  ego  sum  melior. 
Sin  Tulli  eloquio  prastat  facundia  nostro, 
Versibus  ille  meis  cedit  ubique  minor. 
Adde  quod  et  lingua  possum  hcee  prastare  Pelasga, 
Et  Latia.      Talem  quern  mihi  des  alium  ?  " 

*  His  life  has  been  written  by  Carlo  de*  Rosmini,  Milan,  1808,  3  vols. 
Epistolee  Filelfi,  Venet.,  1502  fol. 


Italian  Humanists  of  the  Fifteenth  Century.  49 

at  Padua,  Venice,  and  especially  at  Mantua.  He  was  a 
strictly  religious  scholar  in  a  half  heathenish  generation,  and 
set  a  good  example  by  chastity,  temperance,  and  the  ob. 
servance  of  all  the  devotions  prescribed  to  priests  and  monks. 
'  His  house,"  says  Vespasian,  his  biographer,  "  was  a  sacristy, 
where  good  customs,  acts,  and  words  were  treasured  up."  * 

Laurentius  Valla  (Lorenzo  della  Valle,  1406-1457)  was 
the  best  Latinist  and  the  most  independent  scholar  of  his 
age,  and  the  pioneer  of  historical  criticism.  He  taught  the 
classical  languages  in  the  larger  Italian  cities,  was  secretary 
to  Pope  Nicolas  V.,  and  held  several  ecclesiastical  benefices. 
His  book  on  the  Elegancies  of  the  Latin  Language  served 
for  a  long  time  as  the  best  guide  of  Latin  composition. 

He  had  a  skeptical  mind,  and  delighted  in  paradoxes  and 
in  attacks  upon  current  beliefs.  He  ventured  to  criticise 
and  correct  Jerome's  Vulgate  in  his  Annotations  to  the  New 
Testament  (published  by  Erasmus  in  1505).  He  rejected 
Christ's  Letter  to  King  Abgar  of  Edessa,  as  a  forgery.  He 
doubted  the  apostolic  origin  of  the  Apostles'  Creed.  He 
exploded  the  hierarchical  fable  of  the  Donation  of  Constan- 
tine  as  "  contradictory,  impossible,  stupid,  barbarous,  and 
ridiculous,"  and  thereby  undermined  the  temporal  power  of 
the  papacy.  No  wonder  that  he  excited  the  suspicion  of 
the  Inquisition  ;  but  he  escaped  its  grasp  by  the  hypocritical 
profession  that  he  believed  as  Mother  Church  believed.' 

1  Comp.  on  him  Geiger,  p.  171  sqq.,  and  the  third  edition  of  Burckhardt,  pp. 
213  sq.,  of  the  English  translation,  where  Vittorino  is  described  as  "one  of 
those  men  who  devote  their  whole  life  to  an  object  for  which  their  natural  gifts 
constitute  a  special  vocation.  He  wrote  almost  nothing,  and  finally  destroyed 
the  few  poems  of  his  youth  which  he  had  long  kept  by  him.  He  studied  with 
unwearied  industry  ;  he  never  sought  after  titles,  which,  like  all  outward  distinc- 
tions, he  scorned  ;  and  he  lived  on  terms  of  the  closest  friendship  with  teachers, 
companions,  and  pupils,  whose  good-will  he  knew  how  to  preserve.  He  excelled 
in  bodily  no  less  than  in  mental  exercises,  was  an  admirable  rider,  dancer,  and 
fencer  ;  wore  the  same  clothes  in  winter  as  in  summer  ;  walked  in  nothing  but 
sandals,  even  during  the  severest  frost  ;  and  lived  so  that,  till  his  old  age,  he 
was  never  ill.  He  so  restrained  his  passions,  his  natural  inclination  to  sensuality 
and  anger,  that  he  remained  chaste  his  whole  life  through,  and  hardly  ever  hurt 
any  one  by  a  hard  word. " 

8  See  my  article  on  Laurentius  Valla  in  the  "  Presbyterian  and  Reformed  Re- 
view," for  Jan.,  1891.  The  works  of  Valla  were  published  at  Basel,  1540,  and 
three  new  works  from  Vatican  MSS.  by  Vahlen,  Vienna,  1869. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE    GREEK    HUMANISTS    OF    THE    FIFTEENTH     CENTURY. 
CHRYSOLORAS,    PLETHON,    BESSARION. 

In  1453  Constantinople  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Turks. 
The  Cross  was  conquered  by  the  Crescent,  to  rise  again  in 
God's  own  good  time  over  a  regenerate  Orient. 

This  event  increased  the  emigration  of  Greek  scholars  to 
the  West,  but  its  influence  on  the  promotion  of  Greek  learn- 
ing has  often  been  overrated.  The  more  distinguished 
scholars,  as  Plethon  and  Bessarion,  had  previously  settled  in 
Italy  ;  and  the  great  mass  of  Greek  manuscripts  likewise 
were  imported  by  Italians  and  Greeks  long  before  1453. 

Upon  the  whole,  the  Greek  immigrants  played  a  part  infe- 
rior to  that  of  the  Latin  scholars  whom  we  mentioned  in 
the  previous  section.  They  were  confined  to  the  teaching 
of  the  Greek  language  and  philosophy.  They  were  watched 
with  some  jealousy  by  the  Italians,  and  deemed  deficient  in 
taste  and  refinement.  They  may  be  compared  to  the  Jewish 
Rabbis  from  whom  Christian  divines  learned  the  elements 
of  Hebrew,  but  little  else.  They  seldom  acquired  a  good 
knowledge  of  Latin  and  Italian,  and  became  burdensome 
by  their  poverty  and  want  of  success.  Guarino,  Aurispa, 
Filelfo,  and  Valla  surpassed  them  even  in  Greek  scholarship.1 

I. — Greek  scholars  who  emigrated  before  the  fall  of  Con- 
stantinople : 

Emanuel  Chrysoloras,  of  Constantinople  (1350-1415), 
was  the  first  competent  teacher  of  the  Greek  language  Jn 

1  Voigt,  II.,  124  :  "  Es  ging  mil  den  Griechen  in  demselben  Grade  abwarts,  in 
wekhem  die  Kenntniss  ihrer  Sprache  und  Literatur  unter  den  Italienern  empor- 
stieg.  Als  sie  in  immer  grosseren  Schaaren  und  meistens  als  Bettler  kamen, 
thlug  die  Ehrfurchl,  mit  welcher  man  An  fangs  diese  Sprosslinge  der  homer- 
schen  Heldengeschkchter  und  der  alien  Athener  angestaunt,  viillig  urn." 

50 


Greek  Humanists  of  the  Fifteenth  Century.  5 1 

the  West.  He  taught  in  Florence,  Milan,  Padua,  Venice, 
and  Rome  ;  and  having  conformed  to  the  Latin  Church,  was 
taken  as  interpreter  to  the  Council  of  Constance,  where  he 
died.  He  wrote  the  first  Greek  grammar  (printed  in  1484). 
The  first  Greek  lexicon  was  prepared  by  a  Carmelite  monk, 
Giovanni  Crastone,  or  Crestone,  of  Piacenza,  and  appeared 
in  1497.  We  have  little  conception  of  the  difficulty  of 
acquiring  a  book  knowledge  of  that  language  without  these 
elementary  helps. 

Georgios  Gemistos  (1355-1450),  called  Plethon  or  Pletho,1 
a  native  of  Byzantium,  appeared  with  the  Byzantine  Empe- 
ror at  the  Council  of  Ferrara,  in  1439,  and  favored  the  union 
of  the  two  churches,  but  did  not  conform  to  Rome,  like 
Bessarion,  his  pupil.  He  seems  to  have  returned  to  the  East, 
and  died  in  extreme  old  age.  He  was  a  follower  of  Plato,  and 
introduced  a  more  accurate  study  of  that  philosopher  into 
Western  Europe.  He  wrote  on  the  laws  of  Plato,  and  on  the 
difference  between  Plato  and  Aristotle.  His  countrymen 
called  him  "  the  sage."  The  Italians  listened  reverently  to  "  the 
second  Plato  "  with  silvery  hair,  as  he  explained  to  them  the 
mysteries  of  philosophy  with  youthful  enthusiasm.  They 
admired  his  wisdom,  his  eloquence,  and  virtue.  Cosimo  de' 
Medici  heard  him  often,  and  conceived  the  idea  of  a  Platonic 
Academy  in  Florence.  Plato  was  then  comparatively  un- 
known in  Europe,  while  Aristotle  in  various  forms  had  long 
ruled  the  scholastic  philosophers. 

Pletho's  philosophy,  however,  was  not  pure  Platonism, 
which  he  knew  only  imperfectly,  but  a  mystic  theosophy 
derived  from  Porphyries,  Jamblichos,  and  Proclos.  It  was 
veiled  in  allegorical  language  and  surrounded  by  the  nimbus 
of  mystery.* 

1  He  assumed  this  name  in  Italy  for  its  affinity  in  sound  to  Plato. 

SW.  Gass  :  Gennadius  und  Pletho,  Aristotelismus  und  Platonismus  in  der 
griechischen  Kirche,  Breslau,  1844,  in  two  parts.  Fritz  Schultze  :  Georgius 
Gemisthos  Plethon  und  seine  reformatorischen  Bestrebungen,  Jena,  1874.  Gen- 
nadius (Georgius  Scholarius),  who  likewise  attended  the  Union  Council  of 
Ferrara,  at  first  favored  the  union,  but  on  his  return  opposed  it,  as  Patriarch  of 
Constantinople,  and  prepared  the  orthodox  confession  of  faith  which  bears 
his  name.  See  Schaff,  Creeds  of  Christendom,  I.,  46  sqq. 


52  The  Renaissance. 

Cardinal  Bessarion  (1403-1472),  a  native  of  Trebisond, 
studied  at  Constantinople  under  Pletho,  was  sent  to  the 
Union  Council  of  Ferrara  to  represent  the  Eastern  Church, 
as  titular  Bishop  of  Nicaea.1  He  boasted  that  he  was  re- 
garded in  his  home  as  a  miracle  of  learning.  He  at  first 
defended  the  creed  of  his  Church,  but  afterwards  accepted 
the  Filioque,  and  the  supremacy  of  the  pope,  and  wrote 
books  in  justification  of  his  conversion,  for  which  the  pope 
rewarded  him  with  a  pension  of  600  scudi.  He  considered 
it  as  his  mission  to  mediate  between  the  two  Churches. 
Eugenius  promoted  him  to  the  dignity  of  a  cardinal  in 
1439,  and  Nicolas  V.  sent  him  as  legate  to  Bologna,  to 
restore  the  University.  After  the  death  of  Nicolas  he  would 
have  been  elevated  to  the  papal  chair,  if  the  cardinals  had  not, 
upon  reflection,  deemed  it  unwise  to  elect  a  neophyte  with 
a  Greek  beard  and  bushy  eyebrows.*  He  died  at  Ravenna. 

Bessarion  was  a  philosophical  theologian,  like  all  Greeks, 
and  took  more  interest  in  the  metaphysical  mystery  of  the 
eternal  procession  of  the  Spirit  than  the  practical  work  of 
the  Spirit  upon  the  hearts  of  men.  His  importance  consists 
in  the  advocacy  of  Platonism,  and  in  his  protecting  care  of 
unfortunate  Greek  scholars,  to  whom  he  generously  devoted 
a  good  part  of  his  income.  He  vindicated  Plato  against 
the  charge  of  immorality  and  alleged  hostility  to  orthodox 
doctrines,  pointed  to  his  belief  in  the  creation  and  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul,  quoted  the  favorable  opinions  of  Basil, 
Augustin,  and  other  ancient  fathers,  and  represents  him  as  a 
bridge  from  heathenism  to  Christianity.  But  he  was  also  an 
admirer  of  Aristotle,  and  blamed  Plethon  for  his  violent 
opposition  to  that  great  philosopher.  He  was  a  Pope 
Nicolas  in  a  smaller  sphere,  surrounded  by  a  learned  coterie. 
He  collected  at  an  expense  of  15,000  ducats  (Platina  says 
30,000)  a  library  of  900  codices,  and  300  printed  books,  and 

1  Pius  II.  professed  not  to  know  whether  that  bishopric  was  small,  or  merely 
a  name. 

8  When  the  College  of  Cardinals  was  on  the  point  of  electing  him  pope,  the 
Cardinal  of  Avignon  roused  the  jealousy  of  the  West  by  asking  :  ' '  Would  ye 
have  for  a  pope  a  Greek,  a  recent  proselyte,  a  man  with  a  beard?  Is  the 
Latin  Church  fallen  so  low,  that  it  must  have  recourse  to  the  Greeks  ?  " 


Greek  Humanists  of  the  Fifteenth  Century.  53 

gave  it  (in  1468)  to  the  republic  of  Venice,-  -a  second  Byzan- 
tium, where  he  first  landed.  It  was,  in  Greek  ecclesiastical 
and  philosophical  literature,  the  richest  library  in  Europe, 
and  furnished  Aldo  Manuzio  with  the  material  for  his  val- 
uable prints.1 

George  of  Trebisond  or  Trapezus  (1395-1484)  came  to 
Italy  about  1420,  conformed  to  the  papal  church,  taught 
eloquence  and  Aristotelian  philosophy  in  Venice,  and  then 
at  Rome,  and  was  appointed  an  apostolic  scribe  by  Nicolas 
V.,  who  supported  him  liberally,  but  afterwards  cooled  down 
when  he  learned  that  George  had  taken  some  liberties  in  the 
translation  of  the  Evangelical  Preparation  of  Eusebius.  He 
was  a  conceited,  disputatious,  and  irascible  man,  and 
quarrelled  with  Valla,  Poggio,  Theodore  of  Gaza,  Bessarion, 
and  Perotti.  Bessarion  convicted  him  of  239  errors  in  his 
translation  of  Plato's  Laws,  whereupon  Nicolas  V.  lost 
confidence  in  him  and  withdrew  his  patronage.  He  was 
twice  driven  from  Rome,  repaired  to  Naples,  and  then  to 
Venice,  where  the  Doge  appointed  him  lecturer  in  the 
humanities  at  a  salary  of  150  ducats.  He  returned  to  Rome 
and  ended  his  long  and  troubled  life  as  prisoner  in  the  Castle 
of  St.  Angelo.  His  chief  work  is  a  comparison  of  Aristotle 
and  Plato,  in  favor  of  the  former. 

Theodore  of  Gaza,  the  rival  of  George  of  Trapezus,  was  a 
native  of  Thessalonica,  left  for  Italy  in  1430,  acquired  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  Latin,  taught  in  Ferrara  from  1440 
to  1450,  and  then  passed  into  the  service  of  Pope  Nicolas, 
after  whose  death  he  removed  to  Naples,  and  died  in  Cala- 
bria in  1476.  He  was  a  zealous  Platonist,  and  translated 
several  Greek  works  into  Latin,  and  some  works  of  Cicero 
into  Greek. 

John  Argyropulus,  an  Aristotelian  philosopher  and  trans- 
lator, taught  fifteen  years  with  great  success  at  Florence, 
and  then  at  Rome,  where  Reuchlin  heard  him  lecture  on 

1  Bessarionis  Opera  omnia  in  Migne's  Patrol.  Grceca,  Tom.  CLXI.  See  the 
literature  in  Voigt,  II.,  125,  who  mentions  also  Wolfgang  von  Goethe,  Studien 
und  Forschungen  ilber  das  Leben  und  die  Zeit  des  Cardinals  Bessarion,  1871. 
Add  Henri  Vast,  Le  Cardinal  Bessarion,  e"tude  sur  la  chre'tiente'  et  la  renaissance 
vers  le  milieu  du  if  siecle,  Paris,  1878. 


54  The  Renaissance. 

Thucydides.  He  died  about  1486,  from  excess  in  eating 
watermelons. 

II. — The  Greeks  of  the  second  emigration  : 

John  Andronicus  Callistus  taught  Greek  at  Bologna  in 
1454,  then  at  Rome  in  1469,  under  the  patronage  of  Bes- 
sarion,  and  took  part  in  the  disputes  between  the  Platonists 
and  Aristotelians  ;  afterwards  he  removed  to  Florence  and 
last  to  France,  in  the  hope  of  better  wages.  He  is  said  to 
have  read  all  the  Greek  authors,  and  imported  six  chests  of 
manuscripts  from  Greece,  but  he  produced  nothing  of  im- 
portance. 

Constantine  Lascaris,  who  belonged  to  a  family  of  the 
highest  rank  in  the  Eastern  empire,  found  a  refuge  at  Milan. 
He  gave  instruction  in  the  Greek  language  to  Ippolita,  the 
daughter  of  Francis  Sforza,  who  married  Alfonso,  the  son  of 
King  Ferdinand  I.  of  Naples.  He  composed  a  Greek  gram- 
mar for  her,  the  first  book  printed  in  Greek.  He  moved,  in 
1470,  to  Messina,  where  he  established  a  flourishing  school, 
and  died  near  the  close  of  the  century.  Cardinal  Bembo,  of 
Venice,  was  one  of  his  pupils. 

His  son,  John  or  Janus  Lascaris  (1445-1535),  emigrated 
with  him,  studied  at  Padua,  was  employed  by  Lorenzo  de' 
Medici  to  collect  manuscripts  in  Greece,  and  superintended 
Greek  printing  in  Florence.  He  accompanied  Charles  VIII. 
to  France,  and  was  sent  by  him  as  ambassador  to  his  allies 
in  Italy.  In  1513  he  was  called  by  Leo  X.  to  Rome,  and 
opened  there  a  Greek  and  Latin  school.  In  1 5 18  he  returned 
to  France  and  collected  a  library  for  Francis  I.  at  Fontaine- 
bleau.  He  was  a  man  of  affairs,  but  wrote  little. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE   SECOND   PERIOD   OF   HUMANISM. — AENEAS   SYLVIUS. 

Muratori,  III.,  Pars  II.,  970  sqq.  Platina  :  Vita  Pii  If.,  in  his  "  Vita Pontif. 
Rom." 

G.  Voigt :  Enea  Silvio  de"  Piccolomini.  als  Papst  Pius  II. ,  und  sein  Zeitalter, 
Berlin,  i856-'63,  3  vols.  Pastor,  /.  c.,  II.,  3-261,  gives  only  his  life  as  pope, 
and  ignores  his  previous  career.  K.  Hase  :  JEneas  Silvius  Piccolomini,  in  his 
" Rosenvorlesungen  kirchengeschichtlichen  Inhalts,"  Leipzig,  1880,  pp.  56  sqq. 
Milman  :  History  of  Latin  Christianity,  Book  XIII.,  chap.  76.  Creighton: 
History  of  the  Papacy,  II.  (1882),  pp.  365  sqq.  Zoepffel  in  Herzog,  2d  ed., 
Vol.  XII.,  1-19  (with  a  full  list  of  literature). 

The  second  period  of  humanism  embraces  the  pontificates 
from  Nicolas  V.  (1455)  to  Leo  X.  (1521).  Calixtus  III.  and 
Paul  II.  were  hostile,  Innocent  VIII.  and  Alexander  VI.  in- 
different, Pius  II.,  Sixtus  IV.,  Julius  II.,  and  Leo  X.  de- 
cidedly favorable,  to  the  new  learning.  Pius  II.  was  at  the 
same  time  himself  one  of  the  most  eminent  scholars  and 
fruitful  writers  before  he  became  pope. 

Enea  Silvio  de'  Piccolomini  (^Eneas  Sylvius)  was  born  in 
1405 — the  eldest  of  eighteen  children, — from  a  noble,  but 
impoverished  family  of  Siena  and  imbibed  the  spirit  of  hu- 
manism from  his  teacher,  Filelfo,  at  Florence. 

His  earlier  life  was  that  of  an  adventurer,  a  time-serving 
politician,  a  skilful  diplomatist,  a  man  of  the  world,  and 
a  brilliant  but  frivolous  writer.  He  travelled  extensively, 
served  several  masters,  and  was  used  in  embassies  by  the 
emperor  and  the  pope.  He  spent  several  years  in  Switzer- 
land and  Germany,  and  visited  also  England  and  Scotland. 
He  attended  the  reformatory  Council  of  Basel  as  clerk,  and 
advocated  its  interests  against  the  papal  party,  but  after- 
wards changed  his  views  and  was  rewarded  with  the  bishopric 

55 


56  The  Renaissance. 

of  Trieste  (1447),  a  year  after  his  ordination.  In  1449  he 
became  Bishop  of  Siena,  in  1456  a  cardinal,  and  in  1458 
pope,  assuming  the  name  of  Pius  II.  (with  reference  to  the 
words  of  Virgil :  "  Sum  pius  sEneas  "  ).  During  his  pontifi- 
cate of  six  years  he  labored  to  strengthen  the  papal  power, 
in  which  he  succeeded,  and  to  rouse  Europe  against  the 
Turks,  in  which  he  failed.  He  recanted,  in  the  bull  "  Exe- 
crabilis,"  his  former  liberal  principles,  and  condemned  his 
writings,  comparing  himself  to  Saul,  who  had  ignorantly 
persecuted  the  Church  of  God  and  the  Holy  See.  He  lived 
in  great  simplicity,  was  liberal  to  the  poor,  forgiving  to  his 
enemies,  and  loved  the  solitude  of  the  country  and  quiet 
study.  He  died  after  a  journey  to  Ancona,  where  he  hoped  to 
lead  an  expedition  against  the  Sultan.  "  The  warning  hand 
of  time,"  says  Voigt,  "  wrought  in  him  a  kind  of  moral 
revolution  which,  however,  did  not  express  itself  in  religious 
depth — for  this  was  always  foreign  to  his  nature, — nor  in  too 
sour  morals,  at  which  his  friends  would  have  laughed.  He 
had  luckily  got  rid  of  priestly  ordination  until  an  age  of  life 
when  the  sensual  appetites  needed  not  to  be  resisted,  but 
were  losing  vitality  and  vigor." 

^Eneas  Sylvius  was  a  voluminous  writer.  In  his  youth  he 
composed  several  thousand  lines  of  Latin  epigrams,  elegies, 
odes,  lascivious  love-poems,  novels,  and  comedies,  which 
have  perished.  His  comedy,  Chrisis,  in  the  style  of  Ter- 
ence, moves  among  women  of  ill-repute,  and  is  equal  to  the 
most  lascivious  productions  of  the  humanists.1  He  wrote 
eloquent  orations  which  fill  three  volumes,  and  over  five 
hundred  letters  still  extant.  He  defended  the  claims  of  a 
general  council  and  its  superiority  over  the  papacy  in  his 
book  De  Basileensi  Concilia,  in  his  dialogues  on  the  authority 
of  Councils,  and  in  a  letter  to  the  Emperor  Frederick  III. 
His  most  important  works  are  historical  and  geographical,  a 
history  of  Bohemia,  a  history  of  Frederick  III.,  and  a  cos- 

1  It  is  preserved  in  a  manuscript  at  Prague,  which  Voigt  has  inspected.  He 
says  that  this  comedy  "  spiell  unter  Dirnen,  Dirnenjagern  und  Kupplerinnen 
und  iiberbietel  weit  an  Unflath  alle  Leistungen  seiner  Vor ganger."  Wiederhers- 
tellung  des  class.  Alterth.,  II.,  413  (Enea  Silvio,  II.,  269). 


jEneas  Sylvius.  57 

mography,  in  which  he  gave  the  observations  made  during 
his  extensive  travels. 

When  he  became  pope,  he  disappointed  the  humanists, 
who  expected  great  favors.  He  was  satisfied  with  his  own 
reputation  as  an  author,  and  did  not  need  their  assistance 
by  patronizing  them.1  He  increased,  however,  the  number 
of  abbreviators  or  writers  of  briefs.  His  old  teacher,  Fi- 
lelfo,  forced  out  of  him  a  pension  of  two  hundred  ducats, 
but  was  refused  further  favors,  for  which  he  took  cruel' 
revenge  by  slandering  his  character.  The  pope  preferred  to 
bestow  his  bounties  on  an  army  of  relations  and  friends  from 
Siena,  and  spotted  his  reputation  by  a  species  of  nepotism 
in  which  he  was  preceded  by  Calixtus  III.,  and  followed  by 
many  other  popes. 

He  continued,  however,  his  literary  labors,  wrote  orations, 
pompous  briefs,  autobiographal  memoirs,  and  commentaries 
on  his  reign. 

Platina,  who  knew  him  personally,  quotes  a  number  of  his 
wise  and  witty  sentences,  among  which  are  the  following: 

"  Without  virtue  there  is  no  true  joy. — Common  men 
should  value  learning  as  silver,  noblemen  as  gold,  princes 
as  jewels. — Good  physicians  do  not  seek  the  money 
but  the  health  of  the  sick. — Great  controversies  are 
decided  by  the  sword,  and  not  by  the  laws. — A  citizen 
should  look  upon  his  family  as  subject  to  the  city,  the  city 
to  his  country,  his  country  to  the  world,  and  the  world  to 
God. — The  chief  place  with  kings  is  slippery. — As  all  rivers 
run  into  the  sea,  so  do  all  vices  into  courts. — Flatterers 
draw  kings  whither  they  please. — Kings  hearken  to  none 
more  readily  than  to  sycophants. — The  tongue  of  a  flatterer 
is  a  king's  greatest  plague. — Men  ought  to  be  presented  to 
dignities,  and  not  dignities  to  men. — Some  men  had  offices 
and  did  not  deserve  them  ;  whilst  others  deserved  them  and 
had  them  not. — The  burthen  of  a  pope  is  heavy,  but  he  was 
happy  who  bore  it  stoutly. — An  illiterate  bishop  is  like  an 
ass. — Poor  physicians  kill  the  body,  and  ignorant  priests  the 

1  Voigt  says  (II.,  237)  :  "  Er  war  selbst  tin  zu  grosser  Schriftsteller,  urn  tin 
rechter  Macen  zu  sein" 


58  The  Renaissance. 

soul. — A  wandering  monk  is  the  devil's  bond-slave. — Virtue 
enriched  the  clergy,  but  vice  made  them  poor. — There  was 
great  reason  for  the  prohibiting  of  priests  to  marry,  but 
greater  for  allowing  it  again.1 — No  treasure  is  preferable  to 
a  faithful  friend. — The  use  of  wine  has  augmented  the  cares 
and  the  distempers  of  mankind." 

1  This  famous  testimony  against  clerical  celibacy  was  suggested  by  his  own 
former  experience,  but  was  disregarded  by  his  successors  who  preferred  hierarchi- 
cal power  to  clerical  purity. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE    LAST    POPES    OF    THE    RENAISSANCE:    PAUL    II.    AND 
PLATINA,   SIXTUS   IV.,   JULIUS   II.,   AND   LEO   X. 

Under  Paul  II.  (1464-1471)  the  humanists  had  hard  times. 
He  changed  all  the  officials  and  dismissed  several  abbrevia- 
tors,  among  them  Platina  (1421-1481),  one  of  the  most 
learned  men  of  his  age,  who  disputed  this  right  of  the  pope 
and  threatened  to  appeal  to  the  decision  of  the  Rota  and 
the  princes  of  Europe.  The  pope  put  him  in  chains  for 
treason,  and  brought  him  to  unconditional  surrender.  Platina 
declared  that  the  pope  had-  a  right  and  was  in  duty  bound 
to  restrain  and  reprove  the  license  of  scholars,  and  promised 
hereafter  to  devote  his  strength  to  the  promotion  of  the 
welfare  of  the  Church.  He  was  restored  to  favor  by  Sixtus 
IV.,  and  made  head-librarian  of  the  Vatican  at  a  salary  of 
one  hundred  and  twenty  ducats  a  year,  with  three  sub- 
librarians, who  received  only  twelve  ducats  each,  and  were 
mere  servants,  though  all  of  them  learned  men. 

Platina  wrote,  in  elegant  Latin,  a  valuable  series  of  biog- 
raphies of  the  popes  from  the  Apostle  Peter  to  the  death  of 
Paul  II.  (68-1471),  at  the  request  of  Sixtus  (published  at 
Venice  in  1479).  He  used  freely  the  writings  of  his  prede- 
cessors, but  for  the  pontificates  of  Eugene  IV.,  Nicolas  V., 
Calixtus  III.,  Pius  II.,  and  Paul  II.,  he  could  draw  on  his 
own  observation  and  experience.  In  his  treatment  of  Paul 
II.,  he  gives  vent  to  personal  hatred,  but,  upon  the  whole, 
he  is  impartial.1 

lDe  Vitis  ac  Gestis  summorum  Pontificum  ad  Sixtum  IV.  deductum.  An 
English  translation  was  published  in  1685,  and  republished  by  Rev.  W.  Bend- 
ham,  London  (n.  d.).  Platina  wrote  also  a  Historia  urbis  Mantua,  from  the 
origin  of  the  town  to  1464.  It  is  very  rare.  On  his  quarrel  with  the  Pope,  see 
Uoigt  and  Geiger  (149  sqq.). 

59 


60  The  Renaissance. 

Sixtus  IV.  (1471-1484)  figures  more  prominently  in  the 
political  history  of  Italy  than  in  the  Renaissance,  but  he 
increased  the  Vatican  Library  and  Archives,  transferred  them 
to  four  new  and  beautiful  halls,  and  appointed  regular 
librarians  (first  Bussi,  then  Platina),  with  clerks  and  copy- 
ists. He  had  more  passion  for  architecture  than  for  lit- 
erature. He  built  the  Sistine  Chapel,  which  afterwards 
acquired  such  celebrity  from  the  frescoes  of  Michel  An- 
gelo,  a  great  hospital,  and  other  edifices  of  the  city.  He 
is  the  chief  founder  of  the  disgraceful  system  of  papal 
nepotism. 

Innocent  VIII.  (1484-1492)  and  Alexander  VI.  (1492-1503) 
did  nothing  for  letters  or  arts.  Alexander  and  the  Borgia 
family  represent  a  renaissance  of  crime,  which  they  practised 
as  an  art,  with  diabolical  ability  and  energy.  During  their 
reign  Florence  took  the  place  of  Rome  as  a  home  of  letters. 

Julius  II.  (1503-1513),  a  nephew  of  Sixtus  IV.,  and  Leo  X. 
(1513-1521),  a  grandson  of  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  were  not 
scholars  themselves,  like  Pius  II.,  but  liberal  patrons  of 
architects,  sculptors,  and  painters.  Julius  II.  would  rather 
be  painted  with  a  sword  than  a  book  in  hand,  as  he  said  to 
Michel  Angelo,  but  he  admired  splendid  buildings  and 
monuments.  These  two  popes  had  the  good  sense  and 
fortune  to  avail  themselves  of  the  greatest  artistic  geniuses 
of  their  age,  who  represent  the  culmination  of  the  Renais- 
sance. Raphael  immortalized  their  faces  by  several  portraits, 
preserved  in  the  galleries  of  Rome  and  Florence,  which 
reflect  not  only  the  outward  appearance  but  the  inner  life 
and  character  of  these  popes. 

The  successors  of  Leo  were  absorbed  in  efforts  to  counter- 
act the  Protestant  Reformation.  The  barbarous  sack  of 
Rome  in  1527  by  the  imperial  troops  was  disastrous  to 
literature  and  art,  and  deeply  deplored  by  Melanchthon, 
who,  nobly  rising  above  sectarian  controversy,  said  to  his 
students  at  Wittenberg,  when  he  heard  of  the  savage  out- 
rages committed  by  the  Spanish  and  German  soldiers :  "  Why 
should  we  not  lament  the  fall  of  Rome,  which  is  the  common 
mother-city  of  all  nations  ?  I,  indeed,  feel  this  calamity  no 


The  Last  Popes  of  the  Renaissance,  61 

less  than  if  it  were  my  own  native  place.  The  robber  hordes 
were  not  restrained  by  considerations  of  the  dignity  of  the 
city,  nor  the  remembrance  of  her  services  for  the  laws, 
sciences,  and  arts  of  the  world.  This  is  what  we  grieve 
over.  Whatever  be  the  sins  of  the  pope,  Rome  should  not 
be  made  to  suffer." 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

LORENZO   THE   MAGNIFICENT   (1449-1492). 

Lorenzo  il  Magnifico  :  Opere,  Firenze,  1825,  4  vols.  ;  his  Poesie,  ed.  by  Car- 
ducci,  Firenze,  1859.  Biographies  by  Fabroni  (Pisa,  1784,  2  vols.),  Roscoe 
(London,  1795,  loth  ed.  1851,  and  several  translations),  A.  von  Reumont  (Leip- 
zig, 1874,  2  vols.),  B.  Buser  (Leipzig,  1879).  Albert  Castelnau  :  Les  Medicis, 
Paris,  1879,  2  vols. 

Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  called  il  Magnifico,  was  the  most 
liberal  patron  of  literature  in  the  second  half  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  He  was  a  worthy  grandson  of  Cosimo,  and  ruled 
Florence  till  his  death.  He  was  well  educated  in  Latin  and 
Greek  by  Landino,  Argyropulus,  and  Marsilio  Ficino,  a  poet 
of  no  mean  talent,  an  admirer  of  Plato,  and  a  Maecenas  of 
scholars  and  artists.  His  family  life  was  reputable.  He 
esteemed  and  loved  his  wife,  though  the  marriage  was  one 
of  convenience,  and  he  liked  to  play  with  his  children.  He 
triumphed  over  the  conspiracy  of  the  Pazzi,  who  were  in 
league  with  Pope  Sixtus  IV.  He  encouraged  scholars  and 
artists,  among  them  Michel  Angelo.  But  he  was  a  bad 
manager,  neglected  the  finances,  and  brought  himself  and 
the  republic  to  the  brink  of  bankruptcy  in  1490.  He  mar- 
ried his  daughter  to  the  oldest  illegitimate  son  of  Pope 
Innocent  VIII.,  and  induced  him  to  make  his  youngest 
son,  Giovanni,  a  cardinal,  though  he  was  only  thirteen. 
This  boy  became  pope,  as  Leo  X.,  and  did  his  best  to  revive 
the  fortunes  of  his  family  at  the  expense  of  the  Church. 

Savonarola,  the  severe  preacher  of  moral  reform,  regarded 
Lorenzo  as  an  elegant  worldling  and  enemy  of  the  liberties 
of  Florence.  When  called  to  his  death-bed,  he  asked  him 
whether  he  adhered  to  the  true  faith,  whether  he  was  willing 

62 


Lorenzo  the  Magnificent.  63 

to  return  stolen  property  to  the  rightful  owners  and  to  lead 
a  virtuous  life,  and  whether  he  would  restore  the  republic  to 
its  old  state  of  freedom.  Lorenzo  assented  to  the  first  two 
questions,  but  made  no  reply  to  the  third,  and  hence  was 
refused  absolution.  This  is  the  report  of  Count  Pico,  the  first 
biographer  of  Savonarola,  but  it  is  contradicted  by  Poliziano, 
who  knew  Lorenzo  intimately,  and  reports  that  Lorenzo 
asked  and  received  the  priestly  blessing  from  Savonarola.1 

In  less  than  three  years  after  Lorenzo's  death,  Charles 
VIII.  of  France  entered  Florence,  and  made  an  end  to  the 
rule  of  the  Medici  for  eighteen  years,  when  they  acquired  a 
second  supremacy,  which  soon  became  a  hereditary  monarchy 
and  lasted  two  centures  (1537-1/37). 

'Villari  {Savonarola,  I.,  136  and  154  sqq.)  accepts  the  report  of  Pico  and 
Burlamachi,  but  von  Ranke  and  von  Reumont  (II.,  417  and  442  sqq.}  follow 
Poliziano. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE   PLATONIC   ACADEMY   IN   FLORENCE. 

Fr.  Schultze  :  Geschichte  der  Philosophic  der  Renaissance,  Jena,  1874.  The 
first  volume  treats  of  Plethon.  Comp.  the  corresponding  sections  in  the  His- 
tories of  Philosophy,  by  Ritter,  Erdmann,  Ueberweg,  etc. 

The  Platonic  Academy  was  founded  about  1469  by  Cosimo 
de'  Medici,  patronized  by  Lorenzo,  and  embraced  among  its 
members  the  principal  men  of  Florence  and  some  strangers. 
It  celebrated  the  birthday  of  Plato  (November  I3th)  with  a 
banquet  and  a  discussion  of  his  writings.  It  suffered  an  eclipse 
by  the  death  of  Lorenzo,  Politian,  and  Picus,  and  the  disasters 
which  fell  on  the  children  of  Lorenzo.  It  revived  and  dif- 
fused the  knowledge  of  the  sublime  truths  of  Platonism,  and 
then  gave  way  to  other  academies  in  Florence  of  a  more 
literary  and  social  character. 

A  controversy  broke  out  between  the  Greeks  of  Italy  on 
the  merits  of  Plato  and  Aristotle.  Theodore  of  Gaza  opened 
on  the  side  of  Aristotle.  Cardinal  Bessarion  replied  with 
moderation.  Next,  George  of  Trebisond  poured  abuse  on 
the  Platonic  philosophy  and  vented  his  spite  against  Bessa- 
rion, who  replied  in  1469. 

Pietro  Pomponazzi  (1462-1526),  a  popular  teacher  of  the 
Aristotelian  philosophy  at  Padua  and  Bologna,  roused  alarm 
by  asserting  that  the  immortality  of  the  soul  was  not  taught 
by  Aristotle,  and  could  not  be  proved  by  reason,  but  rested 
on  the  authority  of  the  Church,  which  was  sufficient.  He 
thus  made  a  distinction  between  philosophical  truth  and 
theological  truth.1 

His  book  was  sent  to  Bembo,  the  secretary  of  Leo  X., 
and  shielded  from  censure.  But  the  fifth  Lateran  Council 
in  1512  (sess.  8)  rejected  that  distinction  as  heretical. 

1  Pomponatii  liber  de  immortalitate  animez.     Bonon.,  1516. 
64 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

MARSILIO  FICINO  (1433-1499). 

The  court  of  scholars  by  which  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent 
was  surrounded,  and  which  adorned  the  Platonic  Academy, 
embraced  Poliziano  or  Politian  (1454-1494),  a  brilliant  pro- 
fessor of  Greek  and  Latin  eloquence  in  the  university  and 
one  of  the  most  gifted  humanists  ;  Luigi  Pulci  (1432-1484), 
a  poet  and  freethinker;  Christoforo  Landino  (1434-1504),  a 
commentator  on  Dante  ;  Marsilio  Ficino  (1433-1499) ;  and 
Giovanni  Pico  della  Mirandola  (1463-1494).  The  last  two 
represent  the  renaissance  of  Platonic  philosophy  and  exerted 
most  influence  on  the  progress  of  thought  in  that  age. 

Marsilio  Ficino  or  Ficinus,  the  son  of  Cosimo's  physician, 
was  carefully  educated  by  Cosimo  de'  Medici,  and  destined 
while  yet  a  boy  of  six  years  to  become  a  Platonic  philoso- 
pher and  follower  of  Plethon.  He  called  Cosimo  his 
second  father  to  whom  he  owed  the  new  birth.  He  was 
an  ordained  priest,  rector  of  two  churches,  and  canon  of  the 
cathedral  of  Florence,  and  eloquently  preached  the  Platonic 
gospel  to  his  "  brethren  in  Plato."  He  translated  the 
Orphic  hymns,  the  Hermes  Trismegistos,  and  some  works 
of  Plato  and  Plotinos, — a  colossal  task  for  that  age.  He 
believed  that  the  divine  Plotinos  had  first  revealed  the 
theology  of  the  divine  Plato  and  "  the  mysteries  of  the 
ancients,"  and  that  these  were  consistent  with  Christianity. 
Yet  he  could  not  find  in  Plato's  writings  the  mystery  of 
the  Trinity. 

He  shared  the  general  belief  in  astrology,  and  laid  great 
stress  on  prophetic  dreams.  He  wrote  a  defence  of  the 
Christian  religion,  which  he  regarded  as  the  only  true  reli- 
gion,1 and  a  work  on  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  which  he 

1  De  Religione  Christiana,  in  thirty-eight  chapters. 
5  •  65 


66  The  Renaissance. 

proved  with  fifteen  arguments  against  the  Aristotelians.1 
He  was  an  industrious  student,  fond  of  music  and  good 
company,  but  small,  sickly,  and  kept  poor  by  dishonest 
servants  and  avaricious  relations. 

1  Theologia  Platenica  de  immortalitate  animarum,  in  18  books.    See  Marsili. 
Fidni  Florentini  insignis  Philosophi  Platonid  Opera.    Basel,  1561,  2  rols.,  fol. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

PICUS  OF  MIRANDOLA  (1463-1494). 

The  Theses  of  Pico  de  Mir.  were  printed  at  Rome  1486,  and  at  Cologne  1619  ; 
his  Opera,  at  Bologna,  1496,  together  with  the  works  of  hisnephew,  John  Francis 
Pico,  Basel,  1572,  and  1601. 

George  Dreydorff  :  Das  System  des  Joh.  Pico  von  Mirandola  und  Concordia. 
Marburg,  1858.  Geiger,  204  sqq^ — Giovanni  Pico  della  Mirandola.  His  Life,  by 
his  nephew,  Giovanni  Francesco  Pico.  Transl.  from  the  Latin  by  Sir  Thomas 
More  (1510).  Edited,  with  an  Introd.  and  Notes,  by  J.  M.  Rigg.  London 
(In  "  The  Tudor  Library,"  David  Nutt),  1890. 

Giovanni  Pico,  count  of  Mirandola,  in  the  Modenese 
territory,  studied  canon  law,  theology,  philosophy,  and  the 
humanities  in  Ferrara ;  he  learned  also  Hebrew,  Chaldee, 
and  Arabic.1  He  was  a  precocious  genius,  but  cut  down  be- 
fore he  reached  the  prime  of  manhood.  He  came  to  Rome 
in  his  twenty-third  year  and  published  nine  hundred  theses 
on  miscellaneous  topics,  in  which  he  anticipated  some  Prot- 
estant views,  such  as  that  no  image  or  cross  should  be  adored, 
that  the  words  "  This  is  my  body  "  must  be  understood  sym- 
bolically (significative],  not  materially.  He  also  maintained 
that  the  science  of  Magic  and  the  Cabbala  confirms  the  doc- 
trine of  the  trinity  and  the  deity  of  Christ.  These  opinions 
roused  suspicion,  and  thirteen  of  his  theses  were  condemned 
by  Innocent  VIII.  as  heretical ;  but  as  Pico  submitted  his 
judgment  to  that  of  the  Church  he  was  acquitted  of  heresy, 
and  Alexander  VI.  cleared  him  of  all  new  charges. 

1  "Among  all  those  who  busied  themselves  with  Hebrew  in  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, no  one  was  of  more  importance  than  Pico  della  Mirandola.  He  was  not 
satisfied  with  a  knowledge  of  the  Hebrew  grammar  and  Scriptures,  but  pene- 
trated into  the  Jewish  Cabbalah,  and  even  made  himself  familiar  with  the 
literature  of  the  Talmud.  That  such  pursuits,  though  they  may  not  have  gone 
very  far,  were  at  all  possible  to  him,  he  owed  to  his  Jewish  teachers." 
— Burckhardt,  3d  ed.,  pp.  198  sq. 

67 


68  The  Renaissance. 

Pico  was  a  man  of  rare  endowments  and  erudition,  and  a 
sincere  Christian  of  ascetic  tendencies.  He  was  admired  as 
a  miracle  of  erudition  and  wisdom.  In  the  last  years  of  his 
short  life  he  devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  the  Bible,  and 
intended  to  preach  Christ  throughout  the  world.  He  is 
described  by  his  nephew  as  "  a  handsome  young  man,  tall, 
elastic,  with  brown  hair,  deep  blue  eyes,  shining  white  teeth, 
showing  in  his  whole  personality  a  mixture  of  angelic  gen- 
tleness, modest  chastity,  and  refreshing  benevolence,  which 
delighted  the  eye  and  attracted  the  heart."  Savonarola 
blamed  him  for  not  becoming  a  full  monk,  and  thought  he 
went  to  purgatory. 

His  philosophy  was  a  combination  of  Platonism  and  Aristo- 
telianism.  He  found  the  same  system  in  the  Cabbala  and 
the  Bible,  which  was  a  mistake. 

He  had,  of  all  humanists,  the  loftiest  conception  of  the 
dignity  and  destiny  of  man.  He  appreciated  the  truth  and 
science  of  all  ages  and  nations,  as  well  as  that  of  classical 
antiquity,  and  found  the  highest  truth  in  the  Christian 
religion.  He  is  the  author  of  the  famous  sentence  :  Philoso- 
phia  veritatem  qucerit,  theologia  invenit,  religio  possidet. 

His  principal  writings  are  :  De  Ente  et  Uno,  his  Heptaplus 
(a  commentary  on  the  Mosaic  account  of  the  creation,  from 
which  he  derived  all  the  wisdom  of  the  world  by  means  of 
the  sevenfold  meaning  of  the  words  of  the  Bible),  a  treatise 
on  astrology,  which  he  opposed  as  a  dangerous  error,  and  an 
oration  on  the  dignity  of  man  (De  dignitate  hominis).  In  the 
last  he  maintained  that  God  placed  man  in  the  midst  of  the 
world  that  he  might  the  more  easily  study  all  that  therein  is, 
and  endowed  him  with  free  will,  by  which  he  might  degen- 
erate to  a  beast  or  rise  to  a  godlike  existence.  Man  alone 
is  capable  of  indefinite  development  and  growth,  and  bears 
in  him  the  germs  of  a  universal  and  eternal  life. 

Pico  bequeathed  his  estates  of  Mirandola  and  Concordia 
to  his  nephew,  and  his  property  to  the  poor. 

Pico  had  a  decided  influence  on  John  Reuchlin,  who  saw 
him  in  1490,  and  was  persuaded  by  him  of  the  immense 
wisdom  hid  in  the  Cabbala.  He  was  also  greatly  admired 


Picus  of  Mirandola.  69 

by  Zwingli,  who  adopted  some  of  his  philosophical  views 
and  incorporated  them  in  his  "  Commentary  on  the  True  and 
False  Religion,"  and  his  tract  on  "  Providence." 

His  nephew,  John  Francis  (Gianfrancesco)  of  Mirandola, 
was  a  friend  and  the  first  biographer  of  Savonarola  (1503). 

1  Comp.  Ch.  Siegwart,  Ulrich  Zwingli  :  der  Charakter  seiner  Theologie  mil 
besondcrer  Rucksicht  auf  Picus  von  Mirandola  (1855).  Siegwart  maintains  that 
Zwingli's  doctrine  of  God  in  the  first  chapter  of  his  tract,  De  Providentia,  is  in 
part  literally  borrowed  from  Pico's  tract,  De  Ente  et  Una,  and  that  the  fourth 
chapter  is  an  abridged  reproduction  of  the  Oratio  de  hominis  dignitate.  We 
may  add  that  Zwingli  may  have  derived  his  figurative  view  of  the  words  of 
the  institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper  from  the  same  source.  But  M6rikofer, 
Zwingli,  II.,  508  sq.,  vindicates  the  originality  of  Zwingli. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

BEMBO   AND   SADOLETO. 

Bembo  :  Opere  (Lat.  and  Ital.),  Venice,  1729,  4  vols.,  fol.  Ersch  and  Gru- 
ber,  VIII.,  471.  Wetzer  and  Welte,  II.,  296  Qrevised  edition). 

Sadoletus  :  Opera  omnia,  Moguntise,  1607  ;  Verona,  1737,  4  vols. — Fiordi- 
bello  :  De  Vita  Joe.  Sadoleti. 

Tiraboschi  :  VII.,  300  sqq. 

The  last  distinguished  humanists  who  already  reach  into 
the  period  of  the  Reformation,  are  Bembo  and  Sadoleto. 

Pietro  Bembo  (1470-1547),  descended  from  a  patrician 
family  of  Venice,  was  made  by  Leo  X.  one  of  his  pri- 
vate secretaries,  at  an  annual  salary  of  three  thousand  scudi. 
After  the  death  of  Leo,  he  resided  in  Padua  and  derived  a 
large  income  from  his  rich  benefices.  He  expressed  great 
surprise  at  the  niggardliness  of  the  German  princes  when  he 
heard  that  such  a  scholar  as  Melanchthon  received  a  con- 
temptible salary  of  two  or  three  hundred  guilders  in 
Wittenberg.  He  had  a  large  collection  of  books,  manu- 
scripts, medals,  and  antiques.  He  was  appointed  historio- 
grapher of  his  native  city,  1529,  and  librarian  of  St. 
Mark's. 

Being  created  a  cardinal  by  Paul  III.  in  1539,  he  removed 
again  to  Rome.  There  he  died  in  1547,  and  was  buried  in 
the  choir  of  the  church  of  Santa  Maria  sopra  Minerva. 

Bembo  was  an  accomplished  and  amiable  man  of  the 
world,  like  his  master,  Leo  X.  In  his  earlier  years  he  had 
several  love  adventures,  and  lived  for  twenty-two  years  in 
open  concubinage  with  the  beautiful  Morosina  of  Venice, 
who  bore  him  two  sons  and  a  daughter.  He  lamented  her 
death  in  Latin  elegies.  He  was  a  friend  and  admirer  of 
Lucrezia  Borgia  (the  daughter  of  the  ill-famed  Alexander 

70 


Bembo  and  Sadoleto.  71 

VL),  Duchess  of  Ferrara,  and  dedicated  to  her  his  dialogues 
on  love  (gli  Asolani),  in  which  love  is  first  praised  as  the 
source  of  the  highest  human  happiness,  then  condemned  as 
the  source  of  human  misery,  and  last  represented  as  a  step- 
ping-stone to  divine  love  and  its  blessings.  In  later  life  he 
devoted  himself  to  sacred  studies  and  led  a  serious  life.1 

Bembo  was  a  most  elegant  Latinist,  the  beau  ideal  of  a 
purist,  in  poetry  and  prose,  but  a  slavish  imitator  of  Cicero 
and  Petrarca,  without  productive  genius.  His  highest  aim 
was  classical  correctness  of  style.  He  would  have  adorned 
the  age  of  Augustus.  t  He  wrote  a  history  of  Venice  from 
1487  to  1513,  dialogues,  poems,  and  essays. 

Giacopo  Sadoleto  (1477-1547)  was  born  at  Modena, 
educated  at  Ferrara  and  Rome,  and  acquired  fame  for  his 
finished  Latin  style  in  -poetry  and  prose.  His  poem  on 
the  newly  discovered  Laocoon  group  was  enthusiastically 
received.  Leo  X.  made  him  his  secretary,  and  in  1517 
Bishop  of  Carpentras  in  the  papal  dominion  of  Avignon ; 
Clement  VII.  called  him  back  to  Rome  :  Paul  III.  created 
him  a  cardinal  (1536). 

Sadoleto  combined  humanistic  culture  with  enlightened 
Catholic  churchmanship,  and  forms  the  connecting  link  be- 
tween humanism  and  the  Roman  counter-Reformation.  In 
his  early  life  he  wrote  love  poetry  on  Imperia,  a  famous 
courtesan  of  Rome  ;  but  as  bishop  he  led  an  exemplary 
life,  and  in  his  conflict  with  Protestants  he  showed  toler- 
ance and  amiability  as  well  as  diplomatic  adroitness.  His 
object  was  to  win  them  back  by  gentle  persuasion.  He  ad- 
dressed an  appeal  to  the  Genevese  during  Calvin's  absence 
in  Strassburg,  but  Calvin  defeated  the  attempt  to  alienate  his 
flock  (1539).  One  of  his  chief  works  is  a  commentary  on  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  which  was  written  in  defence  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  view  of  justification,  but  did  not  altogether 
satisfy  his  own  friends.  In  his  "  Consilium  de  emendanda 
Ecclesia  "  (1538),  he  admitted  many  abuses  and  proposed  a 
reformation  of  the  Church  which  he  vainly  hoped  from  the 

1  "  Er  widmete  seine  Jugend  der  Liebe,  die  Zeit  seiner  mannlichen  Kraft 
den  Musen,  und sein  Alter  der  Religion." — Geiger,  p.  224. 


72  The  Renaissance. 

pope.      Altogether  he  is  one  of  the  noblest  characters  of 
the  Roman  Church  in  his  age. 

The  papal  counter-Reformation  which  arose  towards  the 
middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  sounded  the  death-knell  of 
humanism,  by  charging  it  with  immorality  and  irreligion. 
Giordano  Bruno,  one  of  the  last  representatives  of  the  philo- 
sophical Renaissance,  was  condemned  as  a  heretic  by  the 
Roman  Inquisition  and  burned  on  the  Campo  de'  Fiori  in 
1600,  but  his  admirers  erected  a  statue  to  him  on  the  same 
spot  in  1889  to  the  great  annoyance  of  Pope  Leo  XIII. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE  FINE  ARTS. 

"  Hcec  est  Italia  diis  sacra" — Plinius. 

Giorgio  Vasari  (a  painter  and  pupil  of  Michel  Angelo,  1511-1574) :  Le  Vite 
dei  fiu  celebri  Pittori,  Scultori  e  Architetti,  1550  ;  best  edition  by  Gaetano 
Milanesi,  with  notes  and  comments,  Firenze,  i878-'8s,  9  vols.  Small  ed., 
Firenze,  1889.  English  translation  by  Mrs.  Jonathan  Foster,  London,  1850- 
'52  ;  new  ed.  1878,  5  vols.  in  Bohn's  "  Standard  Library."  Vasari  is  the  basis 
of  most  works  in  this  department. 

Benvenuto  Cellini  (goldsmith  and  sculptor  at  Florence,  1500-' 70) :  Vita 
scritta  da  lui  medesino,  Firenze,  often  printed  and  translated.  An  autobio- 
graphy which  gives  a  lively  picture  of  the  life  of  an  Italian  artist  of  that 
period.  German  translation  by  Goethe  ;  English  translation  by  Roscoe,  and 
another  by  Symonds  (London  and  New  York,  1 890). 

Abate  Luigi  Lanzi  (1732-1810) :  The  History  of  Painting  in  Italy,  from  the 
Period  of  the  Revival  of  the  Fine  Arts  to  the  End  of  the  i8th  Century.  Transl. 
from  the  Italian  by  Thomas  Roscoe.  London,  1852  (in  Bohn's  Library),  3  vols. 

Fr.  Th.  Kugler  (1808-1858) :  Handbuch  der  Kunstgeschichte,  Stuttgart, 
i84i-'42,  5th  ed.  1872  ;  also  his  Geschichte  der  Malerei,  1837,  3d  ed.,  1867,  2 
vols.  ;  and  Geschichte  der  Baukunst,  i855-'73,  continued  by  Burckhardt  and 
Llibke,  5  vols.  The  Italian  part  of  his  History  of  Painting  was  translated  by 
Lady  Eastlake,  with  notes  by  Sir  Charles  L.  Eastlake  •  the  other  schools  were 
ed.  by  Sir  E.  W.  Head,  4th  ed.,  London,  1874. 

Wilh.  Ltibke:  Kunstgeschichte,  Stuttgart,  loth  ed.,  1887;  (fully  illustrated 
Engl.  trans,  from  the  7th  ed.  by  Clarence  Cook,  New  York,  1878,  in  2  vols.); 
Gesch.  der  Renaissance  in  Frankreich,  2d  ed.,  1885  ;  Gesch.  der  deutschen  Re- 
naissance, 2d  ed.,  1882  ;  RaffaeCs  Leben  und  Werke,  1882  ;  and  other  works. 

J.  A.  Crowe  and  G.  B.  Cavalcaselle  :  A  New  History  of  Painting  in  North 
Italy  from  the  2d  to  the  i^th  Century  from  new  materials  and  recent  researches 
in  Italy  and  elsewhere.  London,  i864~'67.  By  the  same  :  The  Life  and  Times 
of  Titian.  London,  2d  ed.,  1881,  2  vols.  (dedicated  to  the  then  Crown  Prince 
of  Germany  and  Prussia,  afterwards  Emperor  Frederic  III.). 

Mrs.  Jameson  and  Lady  Eastlake  :  The  History  of  our  Lord  as  exemplified  in 
Works  of  Art.  London,  3d  ed.,  1872,  2  vols.  Mrs.  Jameson  :  Legends  of  the 
Madonna  as  represented  in  the  Fine  Arts.  London,  5th  ed.,  1872.  By  the 
same  :  Sacred  and  Legendary  Art.  London,  ?th  ed.,  1874,  2  vols.  By  the 

73 


74  The  Renaissance. 

same  :  Legends  of  the  Monastic  Orders  as  expressed  in  the  Fine  Arts.  London, 
5th  ed.,  1872.  All  these  works  are  richly  illustrated  by  etchings  and  wood- 
cuts. 

H.  Taine  :  Lectures  on  Art  (in  French,  Paris,  1865  and  1866).  First  Series  : 
The  Philosophy  of  Art.  Second  Series  :  Art  in  Italy,  etc.  Tansl.  by  John 
Durand.  N.  York,  1875.  Also  Taine's  Italy,  Rome,  and  Naples,  and  Italy, 
Florence,  and  Venice,  translated  by  Durand. 

N.  D'Anvers :  An  Elementary  History  of  Art — Architecture,  Sculpture, 
Painting,  Music.  London  and  New  York  (Scribner  &  Welford),  2d  ed.,  1882. 
With  183  illustrations. 

A.  Woltmann  and  K.  Woermann  :  History  of  Ancient,  Early  Christian,  and 
Mediceval  Painting.  Transl.  from  the  German  and  ed.  by  Sidney  Colvin.  Lon- 
don and  New  York  (Dodd,  Mead,  &  Co.),  1880.  Illustrated. 

Jacob  Burckhardt  (Prof,  in  Basel):  Der  Cicerone.  Anleitung  zum  Genuss  der 
Kunstwerke  Italiens.  Fifth  ed.,  by  W.  Bode.  Leipzig,  1884,  3  vols.  Part  I. 
contains  Antiquity  ;  Part  II.,  in  2  vols.,  the  Middle  Ages,  and  the  Renaissance. 

John  D.  Champlin  and  Charles  C.  Perkins  :  Cyclopadia  of  Painters  and 
Paintings.  New  York  (Charles  Scribner's  Sons),  iSSs-'S?,  4  vols.  With 
more  than  2,000  illustrations.  An  alphabetical  bibliography  in  Vol.  I.,  XIX.- 
XXXVI.,  "of  a  kind  hitherto  unattempted. "  Bibliographic  references  to 
English,  German,  French,  Italian,  Spanish,  Dutch,  and  Danish  works  are  also 
appended  to  the  chief  articles. 

Eugene  Miintz  (conservateur  de  1'Ecole  nationale  des  Beaux-Arts  in  Paris) : 
Histoire  de  /' 'Art pendant  la  Renaissance.  Paris  (Hachette  e  Cie-,  1889  sqq.,  5 
vols.  With  numerous  illustrations.  The  first  three  volumes  are  devoted  to 
Italy,  the  fourth  to  France,  the  fifth  to  other  countries.  By  the  same :  Les 
Arts  it  la  cour  des  popes  pendant  le  XV  et  le  XVIf  siecle.  Paris,  i878-*79. 

(A  convenient  Hand-book  on  Painters,  Sculptors,  Architects,  Engravers,  and 
their  Works,  with  illustrations  and  monograms,  by  Clara  Erskine  Clement. 
Cambridge  and  New  York,  1873,  2d  ed.  1875,  pp.  661.) 

The  renaissance  of  classical  learning  was  accompanied  and 
followed  by  a  renaissance  of  classical  art.  The  former  re- 
vealed the  strength  of  the  human  mind,  the  latter  the  beauty 
of  the  human  body  illuminated  by  the  soul.  What  the  age 
of  Nicolas  V.  was  for  the  discovery  of  manuscripts  the  age 
of  Julius  II.  was  for  the  discovery  of  statues  of  antiquity. 
At  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  and  the  beginning  of  the  six- 
teenth centuries  the  unsurpassed  masterpieces  of  Greek 
sculpture — such  as  the  Laocoon  group,  the  Apollo  of  the 
Belvedere,  the  torso  of  Hercules,  all  in  the  Belvedere  of  the 
Vatican  Museum — were  dug  from  the  dust,  and  revealed  the 
Greek  ideals  of  human  beauty.  It  was  a  revelation  indeed, 
and  kindled  an  enthusiasm  for  similar  achievements. 


The  Fine  Arts.  75 

Then  began  those  excavations  and  those  robberies  of  tem- 
ples, palaces,  and  baths,  in  and  around  Rome,  which  enriched 
the  priceless  collections  in  the  Vatican,  the  Lateran,  and  the 
Capitoline  museums  of  that  city.  The  extensive  villa  of  the 
Emperor  Hadrian,  which  covers  some  miles  below  Tivoli, 
and  embraced  a  theatre,  lyceum,  temple,  basilica,  library, 
race-course,  etc.,  furnished  alone  immense  treasures  of  art. 

It  was  a  remarkable  coincidence  that  at  the  same  time 
arose  the  greatest  geniuses  of  Italian  architecture,  sculpture, 
and  painting,  who  fully  equalled  those  of  ancient  Greece  and 
produced  creations  of  beauty  which  are  still  and  will  ever  be 
the  admiration  of  the  world. 

The  revival  of  art,  like  that  of  poetry,  originated  in  Flor- 
ence, which  is  justly  called  Firenze  la  bella,  the  City  of 
Flowers,  and  the  Flower  of  Cities,  "  the  brightest  star  of 
star-bright  Italy."  She  gave  birth  to  an  unusual  number 
of  geniuses,  such  as  Dante  and  Giotto,  Leonardo  da  Vinci 
and  Michel  Angelo,  Cosimo  and  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  Machia- 
velli  and  Guicciardini,  and  possesses  more  treasures  of  art 
and  greater  reminiscences  of  history  than  any  other  city  ex- 
cept Rome.  There  lived  and  labored  the  architects,  painters, 
and  sculptors  of  the  earlier  Renaissance. 

From  Florence  art  wandered  to  Rome,  and  from  there  it 
spread  over  all  Italy.  Giotto  was  called  to  Rome  by  Boni- 
face VIII.,  Fra  Giovanni  by  Nicolas  V.,  Bramante,  Michel 
Angelo,  and  Raphael  by  Julius  II. 

We  may  distinguish  two  periods  in  the  revival  of  art,  as  in 
that  of  letters.  The  first  had  its  centre  in  Florence  under  the 
Medici,  the  second  in  Rome  under  Julius  II.  and  Leo  X. 
The  first  period  extends  from  about  1300  to  1500,  the  second 
from  1500  to  1550.  The  Early  Renaissance  represents  art  on 
the  road  to  perfection,  the  High  Renaissance  upon  the 

1  "  Of  all  the  fairest  cities  of  the  earth 

None  is  so  fair  as  Florence.     'T  is  a  gem 
Of  purest  ray  ;  and  what  a  light  broke  forth, 
When  it  emerged  from  darkness  !     Search  within, 
Without  ;  all  is  enchantment  !     'T  is  the  Past 
Contending  with  the  Present ;  and  in  turn 
Each  has  the  mastery." — ROGERS. 


76  The  Renaissance. 

pinnacle  of  perfection.  Then  followed  the  Later  Renais- 
sance, which  was  a  period  of  decline  and  degeneracy. 

The  chief  artists — painters,  sculptors,  and  architects — of 
the  Early  Renaissance  are  Cimabue  (1240-1302),  "  the  father 
of  modern  painting  "  ;  Giotto  (1276-1337),  his  greater  pupil, 
the  friend  of  Dante,  and  author  of  wonderful  frescoes  in 
Santa  Croce,  in  the  Chapel  of  the  Bargello,  and  in  Santa 
Maria  Novella;  Ghiberti  (1376-1455),  the  designer  of  the 
bronze  reliefs  ha  the  Baptistery  of  St.  Giovanni  in  Florence 
which  Michel  Angelo  pronounced  "  worthy  to  be  the  gates 
of  Paradise  "  ;  Brunelleschi  (1377—1444),  the  rearer  of  the 
dome  of  the  Cathedral  of  Santa  Maria  del  Fiore  in  Florence; 
Donatello  (1383-1466),  the  sculptor,  who  subordinated  ideal 
beauty  to  real  nature  ;  Fra  Giovanni  Angelico  da  Fiesole 
(1387-1455),  who  painted  saints  and  angels  on  his  knees; 
Tomaso  di  San  Giovanni,  called  Masaccio — i.e.,  Slovenly  Tom 
(1400-1443),  the  author  of  the  frescoes  in  the  chapel  of  St. 
Peter,  in  the  church  of  Santa  Maria  del  Carmine,  at  Florence, 
which  are  remarkable  for  precision  in  drawing,  softness, 
and  harmony  of  coloring,  and  which  almost  approach  the 
perfection  of  Raphael  and  Titian  ';  Bramante  (1444-1514), 
one  of  the  chief  architects  of  St.  Peter's ;  Perugino  of 
Umbria  (1446-1524),  the  teacher  of  Raphael. 

The  greatest  artists  of  the  High  Renaissance  are  Leonardo 
da  Vinci  (1452-1519);  Fra  Bartolommeo  (1469-1517),  the 
friend  and  admirer  of  Savonarola ;  Raphael  or  Raffaello 
Sanzio  d'  Urbino  (1483-1520);  Michel  Angelo  Buonarroti 
(1475-1564);  Correggio(i493-i534);  Giorgione  (1478-1511); 
Titian  (1477-1 576) — all  Italians.  With  them  may  be  worthily 
associated  Albrecht  Diirer  (1471-1528),  the  engraver  and 
painter  of  Nurnberg,  whom  Raphael  admired  as  an  extra- 
ordinary genius. 

It  is  remarkable  that  these  artists  should  have  flourished 

1  Taine  (Led.  on  Art,  Second  Series,  p.  n)  calls  Masaccio  "  an  all  but  finished 
artist,  a  solitary  originator  who  instinctively  sees  beyond  his  age,  an  unrecog- 
nized precursor  who  is  without  followers,  whose  sepulchre  even  bears  no  in- 
scription, who  lived  poor  and  alone,  and  whose  precocious  greatness  is  to  be 
comprehended  only  half  a  century  later." 


The  Fine  Arts.  77 

within  the  same  generation,  from  about  1490  to  1520.  Most 
of  them  stood  in  personal  relations,  yet  each  had  his  own 
individuality  and  cultivated  it  to  the  highest  degree  of  per- 
fection that  has  been  reached  so  far.  And  what  a  variety  of 
gifts  were  combined  in  Leonardo  da  Vinci  and  Michel 
Angelo,  who  excelled  alike  as  architects,  sculptors,  painters, 
and  poets  !  The  former  was  besides  a  chemist,  engineer,  mu- 
sician, merchant,  and  profound  thinker,  and  is,  not  unjustly, 
called,  on  his  monument  at  Milan,  "  the  restorer  of  the  arts 
and  sciences."  His  mural  picture  of  the  Last  Supper  in  S. 
Maria  delle  Grazie  in  Milan  (from  the  years  1495  to  1498), 
best  known  by  the  engraving  of  Raphael  Morghen,  in  spite 
of  its  defaced  and  repainted  condition,  is  a  marvellous  repro- 
duction of  one  of  the  sublimest  events,  adapted  to  the  monks 
seated  around  their  refectory  table  (instead  of  the  reclining 
posture  on  couches),  and  every  head  is  a  study. 

Taine  classes  Michel  Angelo,  with  Dante,  Shakespeare, 
and  Beethoven,  among  the  four  great  men  in  the  world  of 
art  and  literature  "  who  are  exalted  to  such  a  degree  above 
all  others  as  to  seem  to  belong  to  another  race  and  to  be 
possessed  by  the  soul  of  a  fallen  deity,  struggling  irresistibly 
after  a  world  disproportionate  to  our  own,  always  suffering 
and  combating,  always  toiling  and  tempestuous,  devoting 
itself  in  solitude  to  erecting  before  men  colossi  as  ungovern- 
able, as  vigorous,  and  as  sadly  sublime  as  its  own  insatiable 
and  impotent  desire."  '  And  he  calls  Leonardo  da  Vinci 
"  the  precocious  originator  of  all  modern  wonders  and  ideas, 
a  subtle  and  universal  genius,  an  isolated  and  insatiate  in- 
vestigator, who  pushes  his  divinations  beyond  his  own  age 
until  he  sometimes  reaches  our  own." ' 

1  Italy,  Rome,  and  Naples  (N.  York,  1877),  p.  186. 

9  Lectures  on  Art,  I.,  16. — Lubke  (Hist,  of  Art,  II.,  28o^.)says :  "  Leonardo 
da  Vinci  was  one  of  those  rare  beings  in  whom  Nature  loves  to  unite  all  con- 
ceivable human  perfections, — strikingly  handsome,  and  at  the  same  time  of  a 
dignified  presence,  and  of  an  almost  incredible  degree  of  bodily  strength  ;  while 
mentally  he  possessed  such  various  endowments  as  are  hardly  ever  united  in  a 
single  person,"  etc. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE    RELIGIOUS    CHARACTER     OF    THE    ART     OF    THE     RE- 
NAISSANCE. 

The  golden  age  of  Italian  art  preceded  the  Reformation, 
and  synchronized  with  its  earliest  phase,  but  had  no  connec- 
tion with  it  whatever.  (The  first  great  German  painters, 
Albrecht  Diirer  and  Lucas  Kranach,  make  an  exception.) 
Raphael  was  born  only  a  few  months  before  Luther  and  Zwin- 
gli,  but  died  before  he  had  reached  mid-life,  and  before  the 
burning  of  the  pope's  bull.  Michel  Angelo  was  older  than 
the  Reformers,  and  long  outlived  them  ;  he  finished  the 
"  Last  Judgment,"  in  the  Sixtine  Chapel,  in  1541  ;  he  under- 
took, when  already  seventy  years  old,  in  1 546,  when  Luther 
died,  the  superintendence  of  St.  Peter's,  and  created  the 
model  of  the  cupola. 

But  that  greatest  and  most  magnificent  church  of  Chris- 
tendom, "  which  stands  alone  of  temples  old  or  altars  new," 
is  both  the  shame  and  the  glory  of  the  papacy,  for  it  was 
largely  built  from  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  indulgences, 
which  roused  the  moral  indignation  of  the  North  and  kindled 
the  flame  of  the  Reformation. 

The  art  of  the  Renaissance  blends  the  glorification  of 
mediaeval  Catholicism  with  the  charms  of  classical  pagan- 
ism, the  history  of  the  Bible  with  the  mythology  of  Greece 
and  Rome.  The  Catholic  type  of  piety  is  shown  in  the 
preponderance  of  the  pictures  of  the  Madonna  who  carries 
the  infant  Saviour  on  her  arms,  as  if  she  were  the  chief 
object  of  worship,  though  the  real  intention  was  to  set  forth 
the  mystery  of  the  incarnation.  The  earlier  painters  of  the 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  were  more  simple,  chaste, 

78 


Religious  Character  of  the  A  rt  of  the  Renaissance.       79 

and  devout  than  those  of  the  sixteenth,  who  reached  a  higher 
distinction  as  artists.  They  are  related  to  each  other  in  point 
of  spirituality  as  Dante  is  related  to  Boccaccio,  and  Beatrice 
to  Fiammetta.  The  classical  models  perfected  the  form, 
but  corrupted  the  morals.  The  holiest  of  the  painters  of 
the  early  Renaissance  is  Fra  Beato  Angelico  da  Fiesole,  who 
produced  his  works  as  acts  of  worship  and  charity.1 

There  is  an  innocent  association  of  Christianity  with 
heathenism.  In  the  Roman  catacombs,  Christ  is  repre- 
sented as  Apollo  with  the  sheep  on  his  shoulder,  or  as 
Orpheus  charming  the  animals  with  the  music  of  the 
gospel.  The  Sibyls,  as  unconscious  prophets  of  heathenism, 
are  placed  side  by  side  with  the  Hebrew  prophets,  by 
Michel  Angelo,  in  the  Sixtine  Chapel,  as  David  and  the 
Sibyl  are  coupled  in  the  judgment  hymn  of  Thomas  a 
Celano. 

But  now  the  immoralities  of  the  Greek  mythology  were 
brought  into  rivalry  with  the  biblical  history  and  the  Catho- 
lic mythology  of  saints  and  martyrs.  Heavenly  beauty  and 
earthly  sensuality  meet  side  by  side,  and  the  latter  often 
overshadows  the  former.  The  same  illustrious  painters 
"  seem  to  take  up  one  task  or  the  other — the  disrobed 
woman  whom  they  called  Venus,  or  the  type  of  highest 
and  tenderest  womanhood  in  the  mother  of  their  Saviour — 
with  equal  readiness,  but  to  achieve  the  former  with  far  more 
satisfactory  success." a  The  Italian  picture-galleries  which  best 

1  Vasari  says  of  Fra  Giovanni  that  "he  might  have  lived  in  the  world  with 
the  utmost  ease  and  comfort  .  .  .  but  he  chose,  nevertheless,  in  the  hope  of 
ensuring  the  peace  and  quiet  of  his  life  and  of  promoting  the  salvation  of  his 
soul,  to  enter  the  order  of  the  preaching  friars  [in  1407]  ;  for  although  it  is 
certain  that  we  may  serve  God  in  all  conditions,  yet,  to  some,  it  appears 
that  they  can  more  effectually  secure  their  salvation  in  the  cloister  than  in  the 
world  ;  and  this  purpose  is  doubtless  successful  as  regards  a  man  of  good  and 
upright  purpose  ;  but  the  contrary  as  certainly  happens  to  him  who  becomes  a 
monk  from  less  worthy  motives,  and  who  is  sure  to  render  himself  truly  misera- 
ble." Pope  Nicolas  V.  offered  him  the  bishopric  of  Florence,  but  Fra 
Giovanni  declined  it,  and  recommended  Fra  Antonio,  who  was  most  eminent 
for  learning  and  piety,  and  was  canonized  by  Adrian  VI. 

*  Hawthorne,  in  his  Marble  Faun  (or  Transformation),  which  contains  some 
choice  descriptions  of  Rome  and  Roman  art.  See  Vol.  II. ,  Ch,  XII. 


8o  The  Renaissance. 

represent  the  Renaissance  period,  are  mostly  made  up  of 
Madonnas,  Magdalens,  Crucifixions,  Noli-Me-Tangeres, 
Saint  Sebastians,  and  other  legendary  saints,  contrasted 
with  Venuses,  Ledas,  and  other  mythological  nudities. 
Titian's  Magdalen  (in  the  Pitti  Gallery)  exhibits  in  one  per- 
son the  voluptuous  woman  with  exposed  breasts  and  flowing 
locks,  and  the  penitent  saint  looking  up  to  heaven. 

The  first  great  painters  of  Germany,  Albrecht  Durer 
(1471-1528),  Lucas  Kranach  (1472-1553),  and  Hans  Holbein 
(1495—1543),  are  free  from  this  heathen  element,  and  show 
the  influence  of  the  Reformation  which  went  back  to 
Christianity  pure  and  simple.  German  art  was  less  beautiful, 
but  more  profound  ;  less  idolatrous,  but  more  religious ;  less 
classical,  but  more  spiritual  than  the  more  distinguished  con- 
temporary art  of  Italy. 

The  beautiful,  the  true,  and  the  good  are  equally  from  God, 
and  they  are  intended  for  each  other,  as  a  harmonious  whole  ; 
but  are  often  separated  by  the  sin  and  weakness  of  man. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

RAPHAEL   (1483-1520). 

J.  Passavant  :  Raphael  von  Urbino  und  sein  Vaier  Giovanni  Santi.  Leipzig, 
i839-'s6,  3  vols.  (Improved  French  edition  by  Paul  Lacroix,  Paris,  1860.) — 
E.  FOrster  :  Raphael.  Leipzig,  i867-'68,  2  vols. — Ruland  :  The  Works  of 
Raphael,  London,  1876. — Anton  Sprenger  :  Raffael  und  Michelangelo.  Mil 
Ilustrationen.  Leipzig,  1878,  4°  ;  ad  ed.,  1883,  in  2  vols.,  8°.  It  is  a  part  of 
Robert  Dohme  :  Kunst  und  Kunstler  des  Mittelalters  und  der  Neuzeit. — W. 
Lttbke :  Rafael's  Leben  und  Werke.  Dresden,  1881. — E.  Miintz  :  Raphael,  sa 
vie,  son  ceuvre  etson  temps.  Paris,  1881. — Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle  :  Raphael,  his 
Life  and  Works.  London,  1882  (German  transl.,  Leipzig,  1883). — Minghetti : 
Raffaello.  German  ed.,  Breslau,  1887. — Herman  Grimm  :  Das  Leben  Raphaels, 
2d  ed.,  Berlin,  1886. 

Vasari  begins  his  Vita  di  Raffaello  da  Urbino  with  a  rever- 
ent recognition  of  the  sovereign  bounty  of  Providence  which 
"  sometimes  is  pleased  to  accumulate  the  infinite  riches  of 
its  treasures  on  the  head  of  one  sole  favorite,  showering  on 
him  all  those  rare  gifts  and  graces  which  are  more  commonly 
distributed  among  a  larger  number  of  individuals  and  ac- 
corded at  long  intervals  of  time  only." 

This  truth  is  strikingly  illustrated  in  the  works  both  of 
Raphael  and  Michel  Angelo.  They  stand  out  in  the  history 
of  the  Renaissance,  so  rich  in  genius  of  the  first  order,  as 
the  highest  peaks,  the  one  unsurpassed  for  grace  and  loveli- 
ness, the  other  for  majesty  and  force.  Michel  Angelo  ex- 
hibits the  stern  severity  of  the  Old  Testament,  Raphael,  the 
sweetness  of  the  New.  "  The  law  was  given  by  Moses  ;  grace 
and  truth  came  by  Jesus  Christ."  They  labored  in  close 
proximity  in  the  Vatican,  Raphael  in  the  Stanze  and  Loggie, 
Michel  Angelo  in  the  Sixtine  Chapel.  Their  pupils  quarrelled 
among  themselves,  and  depreciated  the  rival  of  their  master ; 
6  81 


82  The  Renaissance. 

but  the  masters  rose  above  the  jealousy  of  small  minds. 
They  form  a  noble  pair,  like  Schiller  and  Goethe  among 
modern  poets. 

Raphael  has  been  called  the  Shakespeare  among  painters 
for  the  variety  of  characters  in  which  his  own  is  lost.  His 
Disputa  and  School  of  Athens  are  a  history  of  theology  and 
philosophy  as  embodied  in  their  leading  representatives,  and 
each  head  is  a  distinct  individuality.  He  resembles  also 
Mozart  in  the  precocity  of  his  genius,  the  shortness  of  his  life, 
and  the  number,  sweetness,  harmony,  and  perennial  charm  of 
his  productions.  Goethe,  in  describing  the  picture  of  St. 
Cecilia  in  Bologna,  says  that  Raphael's  predecessors  have 
erected  the  pyramid,  but  that  he  put  the  last  stone  on  the 
top,  and  that  no  other  can  stand  above  or  beside  him. 

His  brief  life  of  thirty-seven  years  was  one  continued  study 
of  preparation  and  execution,  and  gave  to  the  world  over 
twelve  hundred  pictures  and  drawings,  which  are  scattered 
all  over  the  civilized  globe.  Among  these  there  is  not  one 
indifferent  piece,  while  many  are  such  master-works  as  never 
have  been,  and  probably  never  will  be,  surpassed.  His  Ma- 
donna di  San  Sisto  is  the  perfection  of  Madonna  pictures :  his 
Transfiguration  is  the  perfection  of  pictures  of  Christ.  They 
are  the  highest  triumphs  of  Christian  art. 

We  know  little  of  the  private  life  of  Raphael.  "  He  lived, 
he  loved,  he  worked,  he  died  young."  '  He  was  an  amiable 
.and  lovely  character,  free  from  envy  and  jealousy,  modest, 
magnanimous,  patient  of  criticism,  as  anxious  to  learn  as  to 
teach,  always  ready  to  assist  poor  artists,  in  one  word,  a  per- 
fect gentleman.2  He  seemed  to  have  descended  from  a  higher 
world.  Vasari  says  that  he  combined  so  many  rare  gifts  that 
he  might  be  called  a  mortal  god  rather  than  simply  a  man. 
His  mind  lived  in  a  perpetual  springtide.  He  was  all  beauty 
inside  and  outside.  His  beautiful  soul  shone  from  his 
countenance.  The  portraits,  which  present  him  as  an  infant, 

1  ' '  Seine  Geschichte  ist  in  den  vier  Begriffen  enthalten  :   leben,  lieben,  arbeiten 
undjung  sterben. " — Grimm,  p.  87. 

2  Vasari  calls  him  la  gentiltzza  siessa,  which  Grimm  translates  in  half-English  : 
' '  durch  und  durch  ein  Gentleman. " 


Raphael.  83 

youth,  and  man,  are  as  characteristic  and  impressive  as 
Giotto's  Dante,  and  Guido  Reni's  Beatrice  Cenci :  once 
seen,  they  can  never  be  forgotten.  Such  purity,  delicacy, 
and  sweetness  seem  to  be  angelic  rather  than  human. 

"  His  heavenly  face  the  mirror  of  his  mind, 
His  mind  a  temple  for  all  lovely  things 
To  flock  to,  and  inhabit." 

Raphael  was,  like  Goethe,  singularly  favored  by  fortune. 
He  was  free  from  the  ordinary  trials  of  artists — poverty, 
humiliation,  and  neglect.  He  lived  like  a  prince  in  a  palace 
near  the  Vatican  and  had  a  villa  outside  of  the  Porta  del 
Popolo.  When  he  went  to  the  Vatican  he  was  surrounded 
by  a  host  of  admirers.  He  was  papal  chamberlain  and  had 
the  choice  between  a  cardinal's  hat  and  the  marriage  of  a 
niece  of  Cardinal  Bibbiena,  with  a  dowry  of  three  thousand 
gold  crowns.  But  he  put  off  the  marriage  from  year  to  year, 
and  preferred  the  dangerous  freedom  of  single  life.1 

1  Like  other  artists  in  a  corrupt  age,  he  deemed  it  no  sin  to  keep  a  mistress. 
This  is  the  only  dark  spot  on  his  character.  The  fact  rests  on  the  contemporary 
testimony  of  his  admirer,  Vasari.  He  says  (in  his  Vita  di  Raffaello,  chapter  24) 
that  Raphael  was  a  "persona  molto  amoroso,  e  affezionata  alle  donne,  e  di  continuo 
presto  at  servigi  loro,"  and  intimates  (chapter  27)  that  sensual  indulgence  was  the 
cause  of  his  last  sickness.  When  Raphael  felt  death  approaching  he  "as  a  good 
Christian  dismissed  his  beloved  from  his  house  (come  cristiano,  mando  I'amata 
sua  fuor  di  casa),  and  made  a  decent  provision  for  her  support.  .  .  .  Then, 
after  humbly  confessing  his  sins,  he  finished  the  course  of  his  life  on  the  same 
day  on  which  he  was  born,  which  was  Good  Friday,  37  years  of  age.  His 
soul,  we  may  believe,  as  it  beautified  the  world  with  art,  adorned  heaven  with 
itself.  .  .  .  O  happy  and  blessed  soul,  everybody  loves  to  speak  of  thee, 
praises  thy  achievements,  and  admires  every  one  of  thy  drawings."  The 
"  Forarina,"  so-called,  in  the  Barberini  palace  in  Rome,  bears  Raphael's  own 
name  on  the  bracelet.  We  have  from  him  four  erotic  sonnets  which  describe 
"  the  enchanting  deception  of  love."  Grimm  gives  them  at  the  end  of  his 
Raphael  (pp.  500  sqq.~),  and  says  of  them  in  his  work  on  Michelangelo 
(I.,  367  sq.)  :  "  Es  steckt  ein  ganzer  Roman  darin.  Alle  vier  haben  denselben 
In/ialt :  leidenschaftliche  Erinnerung  an  das  Gliick,  das  in  den  Armen  einer 
Frau  gefunden  ward,  zu  der  die  Ruckkehr  unmoglich  ist.  Die  Resignation,  die 
Sehnsucht  die  ihn  erftillt,  die  Wonne,  mit  der  er  dann  ivieder  die  Stunden  sick 
zuruckritft,  als  sie  kam,  tief  in  der  Nackt,  und  sein  -war,  sind  in  seine  Verse 
fiineingeflossen.  .  .  .  Kein  einziges  der  Gedichte  Michelangelo's  enthalt  so 
gliiJiende  Leidenschaft.  .  .  .  Es  ist  von  vielen  Frauen  die  Rede,  die  Raphael 
liebte,  aber  von  alien  wird  nichts  vieiter  gesagt,  als  dass  sie  lebten,  und  dass  sie 
seine  Geliebte  waren." 


84  The  Renaissance. 

He  visited  Florence  soon  after  the  burning  of  Savonarola, 
learned  from  his  friend  Fra  Bartolommeo  to  esteem  him,  and 
gave  to  this  moral  reformer,  as  well  as  to  Dante,  a  place 
among  the  great  teachers  of  the  Church  in  his  grand  fresco 
of  the  Theologia  in  the  Stanze  of  the  Vatican. 

His  best  works  are  devoted  to  religious  characters  and 
events.  He  painted  the  love  adventures  of  Amor  and 
Psyche  in  the  Villa  Farnesina  with  consummate  skill,  but 
also  the  history  of  the  Bible  in  the  Loggie  of  the  Vati- 
can. His  numerous  Madonnas — the  Madonna  di  San  Sisto 
at  Dresden,  the  Madonna  di  Foligno  in  the  Vatican,  the 
Madonna  della  Sedia  in  the  Pitti  Gallery,  the  Belle  Jardi- 
niere in  Paris,  etc. — represent  an  unique  type  of  female 
beauty  and  loveliness  which  combines  the  purity  of  the  virgin 
with  the  tenderness  of  the  mother.  Not  one  of  them  is  a 
portrait.  They  perform  no  signs  and  wonders,  but  they 
elevate  and  edify  men  of  taste  and  culture.  They  represent 
an  ideal  Catholicism  which  worships  the  infant  Saviour 
through  the  Virgin-Mother.1 

The  last,  the  greatest,  and  the  purest  work  of  Raphael  is 
the  Transfiguration.  While  engaged  on  it  he  died,  on  Good 
Friday,  his  birthday.  It  was  suspended  over  his  coffin  and 
carried  to  the  church  of  the  Pantheon,  where  his  remains  re- 
pose in  his  chosen  spot  near  those  of  his  betrothed  bride, 
Maria  di  Bibbiena.  In  that  picture  we  behold  the  divinest 
figure  that  ever  appeared  on  earth,  soaring  high  in  the  air, 
with  arms  outspread,  in  garments  of  transparent  light, 
adored  by  Moses  on  the  right  hand  and  by  Elijah  on  the 
left,  who  represent  the  Old  Covenant  of  law  and  promise. 
The  three  favorite  disciples  are  lying  on  the  ground  unable 
to  face  the  dazzling  splendor  from  heaven.  Beneath  this 
celestial  scene  we  see,  in  striking  contrast,  the  epileptic  boy 
with  rolling  eyes,  distorted  features,  and  spasmodic  limbs, 
held  by  his  agonized  father  and  supported  by  his  sister ; 
while  the  mother  appeals  to  the  nine  disciples  with  im- 
ploring look,  as  if  to  say  :  Ye  must  call  down  your  Master, 

1  See  Grimm's  admirable  description  of  Raphael's  Madonnas,  pp.  414  sy$.,  and 
Gruyer,  Les  vierges  de  Raphael,  Paris,  1869,  3  vols. 


Raphael.  85 

the  Healer  of  all  diseases.  In  connecting  the  two  scenes  the 
painter  followed  the  narrative  of  the  Gospels  (Matt.  xvii. : 
1-14;  Mark  ix.  :  2-14;  Luke  ix. :  28-37).  The  connection  is 
significant  and  repeated  in  Christian  experience.  Descend- 
ing from  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration,  we  are  confronted 
with  the  misery  of  earth,  but  prepared  to  lift  it  up  to  heaven. 
Goethe  wondered  that  any  one  could  doubt  the  unity  of  the 
picture  :  the  upper  and  lower  parts  cannot  be  separated — be- 
neath is  suffering  that  craves  for  help,  above  is  actual  power 
and  grace  sufficient  to  heal  all  misery. 

"  Earth  has  no  sorrow  that  heaven  cannot  heal." 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

MICHEL  ANGELO   AND   VITTORIA   COLONNA. 

I.  Older  biographies  by  his  pupils,  Vasari  and  of  M.  Angelo  Condivi.    G.  Mi- 
lanesi  :  Lettere  di  M.  Angelo  Bztonarroti,  Florence,  1875  (in  celebration  of  the 
fourth  centenary  of  his  birth). — A.    Gotti :    Vila  di  Michel  Angelo,  Florence, 
1875,    2  vols. — Hermann  Grimm  :  Leben   Michelangelo 's,   Berlin,    1860  ;    5th. 
ed.  1879,  2  vols.     (The  English  translation  by  Fanny  Eliz.  Bunnet,  London, 
1865,  reprinted  in  Boston,  I2th  ed.,  1882,  in  2  vols.,  was  made  from  the  second 
ed.)     The  fifth  edition  has  superseded  the  earlier  editions,  as  it  is  partly  rewrit- 
ten with  the  use  of  the  papers  of  the  Archivio  Buonarroti  at  Florence,  published 
by   Milanesi. — Springer  :    Raffael  und  Michelangelo,   2d  ed.,    1883.     For  an 
estimate  of  his  works,  Burckhardt's  Cicerone,  5th  ed.,  1884. 

II.  Vittoria  Colonna  (Marchesana  di  Pescara) :  Rime  e  Lettere,  first  printed 
at  Parma,   1538,  then  again  and  again  ;  best  ed.  by  Pietro  Ercole  Visconti, 
Rome,    1840. — H.  Roscoe  :    Victoria  Colonna,  Her  Life  and  Poems,  London, 
1868,  2  vols. — Guisseppe  Campori  :    Vittoria  Colonna,  Modena,  1876. — Ad.  von 
Reumont :    Vittoria  Colonna,  vita,  fede  e  poesia  nel  secolo  decimosesto,  Torino, 
1883  (also  in  German). — Ferrero  e  Miiller  :   Carteggio  di  Vittoria  Col.,  Marchesa 
di  Pescara.  Torino,  1889  (with  bibliography,  pp.  xxviii.-xxxii.), — Ch.   XIV.  of 
Grimm's  Michelangelo,   II.,  288-332.     A  German  translation  of  her  poems  by 
Bertha  Arndts,  Schaffhausen,  1858,  2  vols. 

Michel  Angelo  Buonarroti  (1475-1564)  was  ten  years  older 
than  Raphael,  and  survived  him  forty-four  years.  He  drew 
the  inspiration  for  his  sculptures  and  pictures  from  the  Old 
Testament,  from  Dante,  and  from  Savonarola.  He  praised 
Dante  in  two  sublime  sonnets,  and  would  have  preferred 
that  poet's  exile  and  fame  to  the  most  fortunate  lot.  He 
heard  Savonarola's  thrilling  sermons  against  wickedness  and 
vice,  and  witnessed  his  martyrdom  in  the  Piazza  della  Sig- 
noria  on  the  yth  of  April,  1498.  His  greatest  works  are  the 
statues  of  Moses  (in  S.  Pietro  in  Vincoli),  of  David  (in  Flor- 
ence), the  Pieta  (in  St.  Peter's),  the  picture  of  the  Last  Judg- 
ment (in  the  Sixtine  Chapel),  and  the  cupola  of  St.  Peter's, 

86 


Michel  A  ngelo.  87 

"  That  vast  and  wondrous  dome, 
To  which  Diana's  marvel  was  a  cell, — 
Christ's  mighty  shrine  above  his  martyr's  tomb."  l 

The  Pieta,  a  marble  group  representing  the  Virgin  Mary 
holding  the  crucified  Saviour  in  her  arms,  raised  him  suddenly 
to  the  rank  of  the  first  sculptor  of  Italy.  It  excites  the 
deepest  emotions  of  sympathy  with  the  grief  of  the  mother, 
as  does  the  Stabat  Mater  in  poetry." 

His  works  have  colossal  proportions,  and  refuse  to  be 
judged  by  ordinary  rules.  His  Moses  (which  was  intended 
for  a  sepulchral  monument  of  the  warlike  Pope  Julius  II.,  in 
St.  Peter's),  is  a  superhuman  figure  of  commanding  majesty 
and  dignity,  and  looks  like  a  mighty  warrior  ready  to  break 
the  tables  of  the  law  in  fierce  indignation  against  the  worship 
of  the  golden  calf.  His  Last  Judgment,  on  the  altar  wall 
of  the  Sixtine  Chapel,  reflects  Dante's  Inferno,  and  represents 
Christ  as  an  angry  Jupiter  who  thunders  his  curse  on  the 
wicked  and  sends  them  into  the  eternal  fire  prepared  for  the 
devil  and  his  servants.  There  is  no  trace  in  it  of  that  mercy 
which  shall  say  to  the  righteous  on  his  right  hand  :  "  Come,  ye 
blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit  the  kingdom  prepared  for  you 
from  the  foundation  of  the  world."  It  is  indeed  impossible 
for  any  artist  to  unite  in  one  figure  the  impartial  justice  and 
infinite  mercy  of  the  Judge  of  mankind.  But  the  former 
was  the  dominant  conception  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  un- 
derlies the  inimitable  Dies  irce  of  Thomas  a  Celano.1 

1  With  these  well-known  lines  of  Byron  may  be  coupled  those  of  Schiller  : 
"  Und  ein  zweiter  Himmel  in  den  Himmel 
Steigl  Sanct  Peter's  wundersamer  Dom." 

8  Comp.  Grimm's  admirable  description  of  the  Pieta,  I.,  186  sqq. 

3  Mrs.  Jameson  (The  History  of  our  Lord  as  exemplified  in  Works  of  Art,  II., 
408),  says  :  "  Michael  Angelo's  conception  of  the  Divine  Judge  may  be  con- 
sidered the  ne  plus  ultra  of  all  that  is  most  opposed  to  the  Christian's  idea,  for 
even  the  dignity  of  a  pagan  deity  is  lost  in  the  muscular  vehemence  of  the  fig- 
ure." Grimm  (II.,  224)  judges  almost  as  severely.  "  Unbeschreiblich  befrem- 
dend  ist  der  Anblick,  den  der  Christus  des  jungsten  Gerichts  bietet.  .  .  .  Dock, 
•wenn  cin  jungsles  Gericht  gemalt  iverden  sollte  mil  ewiger  Verdammniss,  und 
Christtis  als  der  Richter,  der  sie  ausspricht,  ivie  konnle  er  anders  erscheinen  als 
in  sole  her  Furcktbarkeit  ?  " 


88  The  Renaissance. 

Michel  Angelo  carried  a  great  soul  in  an  unattractive  body, 
and  had,  in  consequence  of  an  early  injury,  a  disfigured  nose. 
He  lived  in  patriarchal  simplicity,  like  a  monk,  solitary  and 
alone,  without  wife  or  children.  He  called  art  his  bride, 
and  his  works  his  children.  Vasari  and  Condivi  both  bear 
witness  to  his  spotless  morality.  He  was  not  contaminated 
by  contact  with  a  licentious  court.  He  deplored  the  corrup- 
tions of  the  papacy. 

"  For  Rome  still  slays  and  sells  Christ  at  the  court, 
Where  paths  are  closed  to  virtue's  fair  increase."  ' 

At  the  age  of  sixty  he  found  one  woman,  pure,  proud,  and 
noble  as  himself.  She  became  to  him  almost  as  dear  as  Beat- 
rice was  to  Dante,  and  Laura  to  Petrarca.  That  woman  was 
Vittoria  Colonna  (1490-1547),  the  widow  of  the  Marquis 
of  Pescara.  He  met  her  in  1534,  when  she  was  forty-four 
years  of  age  and  living  in  retirement,  half  a  nun,  devoting 
her  time  to  the  memory  of  her  husband,  to  literature,  poetry, 
and  religion.  She  had  no  children.  She  was  the  most 
gifted  and  cultivated  lady  of  Italy,  and  the  greatest  Italian 
poetess.  Her  virtue  and  piety  are  preserved  in  her  poems 
and  letters,  and  shine  with  double  lustre  in  contrast  with  the 
prevailing  corruption  in  high  society,  clerical  and  secular. 

She  represents  the  best  type  of  the  Italian  Renaissance  in 
its  approach  to  the  spirit  of  the  evangelical  Reformation. 
She  fell  in  with  that  semi-Protestant  movement  which  began 
to  show  itself  even  in  Rome  towards  the  middle  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  but  was  soon  suppressed  by  the  papal  coun- 
ter-Reformation. She  was  intimate  with  cardinals  Sadoleto, 
Contarini,  Morone,  Reginald  Pole  (afterwards  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury),  the  poet  Flaminio,  and  others  who  sincerely 
desired  religious  reform  within  the  Roman  Church.  She 
associated  with  the  two  most  distinguished  Italian  converts 
to  Protestantism,  Pietro  Martire  Vermigli  of  Florence,  a 
Calvinistic  theologian,  and  Bernardino  Ochino  of  Siena,  the 
eloquent  general  of  the  Capuchins,  who  fled  from  the  Inqui- 
sition to  Switzerland  (1542).  She  corresponded  with  like- 

1  See  his  sonnets  Signer,  se  vero  t,  and  Qua  si  fa  elmi,  translated  by  Symonds, 
in  The  Fine  Arts,  p.  516. 


Michel  Angela.  go 

minded  and  highly  accomplished  ladies,  as  Giulia  Gonzaga, 
the  childless  widow  of  the  Duke  Vespasian  Colonna,  who 
was  praised  by  Ariosto  for  her  beauty,  as  a  goddess  descended 
from  heaven,  Renata,  Duchess  of  Ferrara,  the  friend  of 
John  Calvin  (since  1536),  and  Margaret,  Queen  of  Navarre, 
who  protected  Protestant  refugees  and  was  denounced  as  a 
heretic  by  the  Sorbonne  (I533).1 

These  cultivated  men  and  women  tasted  the  marrow  of 
the  gospel, — forgiveness  of  sin  and  peace  of  conscience 
through  the  all-sufficient  grace  of  Christ ;  in  other  words,  the 
Pauline  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith,  which  created  such 
a  commotion  in  the  sixteenth  century  as  never  before  or 
since.  "  Omnia  sunt  possibilia  credenti"  wrote  Vittoria  to 
Michel  Angelo,  "  only  believe  and  the  thing  takes  place." 

About  the  year  1 540,  a  remarkable  little  book  on  The  Benefit 
of  Christ's  Death,  was  published  in  Venice  and  circulated  in 
several  editions  and  thousands  of  copies  throughout  Italy. 
It  is  an  echo  of  Luther's  writings  on  justification  by  faith, 
and  sets  forth  in  the  language  of  Paul,  clearly  and  forcibly 
the  misery  of  man's  sinfulness,  the  deliverance  from  the 
curse  of  the  law  by  Christ,  the  nature  and  effect  of  faith,  and 
the  union  of  the  soul  with  Christ."  This  book  was  publicly 

1  Grimm  says  of  Vittoria  Colonna  (II.,  310) :  "  Sie  stand  mit  an  der  Spitze 
der  Partei,  der  die  Zukunft  zu  gehoren  schien.     Hatten  Hire  Freunde  den  Er- 
folg  fur  sich  gehabt,  Vittoria' s  Name  wttrde  -von  noch  grosser  em  Glanze  heute 
umgeben  sein.     Sie,  Renata  von  Ferrara  und  Margareta  von  Navarra,  alle 
drei  durch  Freundschaft  verbunden  und  in  fortwahrendem  Verkehr,  bildeten 
das  Triumvirat  von  Frauen,  unter  dessen  Anfuhrung  das  game  gebildete  Ital- 
ien  damals  in  den  Kampfging.     Polo  oder  Contarini  htitten  nur,  wozu  sie  beide 
Aussicht  hatten,  nach  Paul's  Tode  zut  hdchsten  Wiirde  gehngen  diirfen,  und 
der  Sieg  ware  errungen  geioesen" 

2  The  following  passages  may  serve  as  specimens  :  "  O  great  unkindness  !    O 
thing  abominable  !  that  we,  who  profess  ourselves  Christians,  and  hear  that  the 
Son  of  God  hath  taken  all  our  sins  upon  him,  and  washed  them  out  with  his 
precious  blood,  suffering  himself  to  be  fastened  to  the  cross  for  our  sakes,  should 
nevertheless  act  as  though  we  would  justify  ourselves,  and  purchase  forgiveness 
of  our  sins  by  our  own  works  ;  as  if  the  deserts,  righteousness,  and  bloodshed  of 
Jesus  Christ  were  not  enough  to  do  it,  unless  we  came  to  add  our  works  and 
righteousness  ;   which  are  altogether   defiled  and  spotted  with  self-love,  self- 
liking,  self-profit,  and  a  thousand  other  vanities,  for  which  we  have  need  to 
crave  pardon  at  God's  hand,  rather  than  reward.     Neither  do  we  think  of  the 


90  The  Renaissance. 

burnt  at  Naples  in  1553.  It  was  formerly  attributed  to 
Aonio  Paleario  of  Siena,  but  is  now  known  to  have  pro- 
ceeded from  a  pupil  of  the  Spaniard  Juan  de  Valdes,  who 
resided  in  Rome  and  Naples.  He  translated  the  Greek 
Testament  into  Spanish,  spread  commentaries  and  evangeli- 
cal tracts  in  Italy,  and  died  in  1 541.  He  was  a  twin  brother  of 
Alfonso  de  Vald£s,  who  accompanied  the  Emperor  Charles 
V.  to  the  Diet  of  Worms,  and  the  Diet  of  Augsburg,  and 
died  1532.' 

threatenings  which  St.  Paul  useth  to  the  Galatians  who,  having  been  deceived 
by  false  preachers,  believed  not  that  the  justification  by  faith  was  sufficient  of 
itself,  but  went  about  still  to  be  made  righteous  by  the  law.  Unto  whom  St. 
Paul  saith,  '  Jesus  Christ  will  profit  you  nothing  that  justify  yourselves  by  the 
law  ;  ye  are  fallen  away  from  grace  ;  for  we  through  the  Spirit  by  faith  wait  for 
the  hope  of  righteousness."  The  writer,  however,  insists  on  the  inseparable 
connection  between  faith  and  good  works.  "  Now  are  we  come  to  the  end  of 
our  purpose,  wherein  our  chief  intent  hath  been  (according  to  our  small  power) 
to  magnify  the  wonderful  benefit  which  the  Christian  man  hath  received  by 
Jesus  Christ  crucified,  and  to  show  that  faith  of  herself  alone  justifieth,  that  is 
to  wit,  that  God  receiveth  and  holdeth  them  for  righteous  who  believe  stead- 
fastly that  Christ  hath  made  full  amends  for  their  sins  ;  howbeit,  that,  as  light 
cannot  be  separated  from  fire,  which  of  itself  burneth  and  devoureth  all  things, 
even  so  good  works  cannot  be  separated  from  faith,  which  alone  by  itself  justifieth. 
And  this  holy  doctrine  (which  exalteth  Jesus  Christ,  and  represseth,  abateth  the 
pride  of  man)  hath  been  and  always  will  be  rejected,  and  fought  against  by  such 
Christians  as  have  Jewish  minds.  But  happy  is  he  who,  following  the  example 
of  St.  Paul,  spoileth  himself  of  his  own  righteousness,  and  would  have  none 
other  righteousness  than  that  which  is  of  Jesus  Christ,  wherewith  if  he  be 
clothed  and  apparelled,  he  may  most  assuredly  appear  before  God,  and  shall 
receive  his  blessing  and  the  heritage  of  heaven  and  earth  with  his  only  Son 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  ;  to  whom  be  all  honor,  praise,  and  glory,  from  this  time 
forth  for  evermore.  Amen." 

1  Leopold  von  Ranke  traced  the  tract  in  the  Acts  of  the  Inquisition  to  a  monk 
of  San  Severino,  in  Naples,  a  pupil  of  Valdes.  Die  r omischen  Papste,  I.,  91  sq. 
(8th  ed.)  Benrath  discovered  the  name,  Don  Benedetto  of  Mantova.  Flaminio 
of  Imola,  a  friend  of  Valdes  and  Vermigli,  gave  the  book  its  final  shape.  See 
Benrath  in  Brieger's  "  Zeitschrift  der  Kirchengeschichte,"  Leipzig,  i,  575-596 
(1877);  an  article  of  Ed.  Bohmer  on  Valdes  in  Herzog*,  XVI.,  276-291,  and 
his  book  Spanish  Reformers,  Strassburg  and  London  (1874),  Vol  I.,  63  sqq. 
Bohmer  states  that  there  are  in  the  imperial  library  of  Vienna  two  Italian  copies 
(one  of  1546,  another  without  date)  of  the  Trattato  utilissimo  del  beneficio  di 
Giesu  Christo  crocifisso,  verso  i  Christiani.  The  English  edition,  which  was 
republished  by  the  London  Religious  Tract  Society,  and  by  Gould  and  Lincoln 
in  Boston  (1860),  was  copied  from  a  French  version,  4th  ed.,  London,  1638. 


Michel  Angelo  and  Viitoria  Colonna.  91 

In  1 542  the  reaction  began  with  the  establishment  of  the 
Inquisition  and  the  activity  of  the  Order  of  the  Jesuits,  and 
in  a  few  years  crushed  the  Reformation  in  Italy  except  in 
the  Italian  portions  of  the  Orisons. 

Vittoria  Colonna  did  not  escape  the  suspicion  of  the 
Inquisition  and  the  watchfulness  of  the  spies  of  Caraffa. 
She  had  to  submit  to  the  power  of  the  reaction,  and  retired 
to  Viterbo,  where  she  gathered  a  few  friends  around  her, 
and  kept  up  a  correspondence  with  Michel  Angelo.  She 
delivered  Ochino's  letter  and  defence  for  his  flight,  which  he 
sent  to  her  as  an  old  friend,  to  Rome,  and  declared  that  she 
would  not  write  an  answer  unless  commanded  to  do  so. 
Twenty  years  after  her  death,  a  noble  Florentine  was  con- 
demned to  the  flames  in  Rome,  because,  among  other 
crimes,  he  had  belonged  to  her  circle. 

Michel  Angelo  concentrated  upon  this  noble  lady  all  the 
pent-up  forces  of  his  love,  and  exchanged  with  her  letters 
and  poems.  She  addressed  him  as  the  "  unique  master 
Michelangelo  and  most  particular  friend."  *  He  admired  her 
piety  as  much  as  her  literary  culture.  He  was  himself  not 
far  from  the  spirit  of  evangelical  religion  ;  and  had  he  lived 
in  Germany  he  might  have  come  as  near  to  it  as  Albrecht 
Diirer. 

The  years  of  his  friendship  with  Vittoria  Colonna  were 
the  happiest  of  his  life.  His  sonnets  addressed  to  her  burn 
with  the  fire  of  youth  in  old  age.  Her  death  in  February, 
1547,  nearly  upset  his  mind,  as  we  learn  from  his  pupil, 
Condivi.  He  stood  at  her  bedside  and  kissed  her  hand.  He 
regretted  afterwards  that  he  had  not  kissed  her  brow  or 
cheek.  He  outlived  her  seventeen  years. 

His  last  work  in  marble  was  the  unfinished  Pieta,  in  the 
Duomo  of  Florence  ;  his  last  design  a  picture  of  the  Cruci- 
fixion. In  his  last  poems  he  takes  farewell  of  the  fleeting 
pleasures  of  life,  turns  to  God  as  the  only  reality,  and  finds 
in  the  crucified  Saviour  his  only  comfort.  This  is  the  core 
of  the  evangelical  doctrine  of  justification  rightly  under- 
stood. 

i  "  Unico  maestro  Michelangelo  e  mio  singularissimo  amico." 


92  The  Renaissance. 

"  Freed  from  a  burden  sore  and  grievous  band, 

Dear  Lord,  and  from  this  wearying  world  untied, 

Like  a  frail  bark  I  turn  me  to  Thy  side, 
As  from  a  fierce  storm  to  a  tranquil  land. 
Thy  thorns,  Thy  nails,  and  either  bleeding  hand, 

With  Thy  mild,  gentle,  piteous  face,  provide 

Promise  of  help  and  mercies  multiplied, 
And  hope  that  yet  my  soul  secure  may  stand. 

' '  Let  not  Thy  holy  eyes  be  just  to  see 

My  evil  past,  Thy  chastened  ears  to  hear, 
And  stretch  the  arm  of  judgment  to  my  crime  ; 
Let  Thy  blood  only  lave  and  succor  me, 
Yielding  more  perfect  pardon,  better  cheer, 
As  older  still  I  grow  with  lengthening  time."  * 

The  day  of  Michel  Angelo's  death  was  the  day  of  Galileo 
Galilei's  birth  in  Florence.  The  golden  age  of  art  had 
passed,  the  age  of  science  was  at  hand.  When  the  fruit  is 
ripe  it  begins  to  decay.  But  a  thing  of  beauty  remains 
"  a  joy  for  ever." 

The  great  artists  of  the  Renaissance  belong  not  to  Italy 
alone,  but  to  the  world  and  to  all  ages. 

1  See  the  sonnets,  translated  by  Syinonds,  The  Fine  Arts,  p.  527  sq. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

THE  REVIVAL  OF  PAGANISM  IN  ITALY. 

The  revival  of  classical  literature  and  art  carried  in  it  the 
danger  of  a  revival  of  heathenism  in  religion  and  morality. 
The  worship  of  classical  forms  led  to  the  worship  of  classical 
ideas.  Some  humanists  and  artists  combined  culture  with 
Christian  faith  and  devoted  their  genius  to  the  cause  of  truth 
and  virtue ;  but  the  majority  silently  or  openly  sacrificed  to 
the  gods  of  Greece  and  Rome  rather  than  to  the  God  of  the 
Bible.  The  dazzling  glory  of  classical  antiquity  obscured 
the  humble  beauty  of  Christianity. 

The  pagan  tendency  showed  itself  in  the  slavish  imitation 
of  classical  forms.  The  Ciceronian  style  superseded  the 
ecclesiastical  and  biblical  style.  Bembo  advised  Sadoleto 
to  "  avoid  the  Epistles  of  Paul,  lest  the  barbarous  style  of 
the  Apostle  should  spoil  his  taste."  Parents  substituted 
mythological  names  for  those  of  saints  in  christening  their 
children.  Vernacular  proper  names  were  turned  into  Latin 
and  Greek.  The  scholars  of  the  North  adopted  this  childish 
fashion.  Thus  we  have  Capnion  for  Reuchlin  (from  Ranch, 
smoke),  Desiderius  Erasmus  (Erasmios)  for  Gerhard,  Me- 
lanchthon  for  Schwarzerd,  Camerarius  for  Kammermeister, 
Oecolampadius  for  Hausschein,  Lupulus  for  Wolflein,  Va- 
dianus  for  Watt,  Glareanus  for  Loreti  (of  Glarus),  Biblian- 
der  for  Buchmann,  Comander  for  Dorfmann.  Hutten,  Luther, 
Zwingli,  Cranmer,  and  Knox,  who  were  more  patriotic,  ad- 
hered to  their  vernacular  names. 

A  more  serious  change  was  the  paganizing  of  sacred  terms 
and  the  substitution  of  mythological  for  Christian  ideas. 
The  saints  became  Pii  or  Dea ;  their  statues,  simulacra 

93 


94  The  Renaissance. 

sancta  Deorum  ;  Peter  and  Paul,  Dii  titular es  Roma  or  Sane- 
tits  Romulus  and  S.  Remus  ;  the  nuns,  Virgines  Vestales  ;  the 
departed  souls  of  the  righteous,  Manes  pit ;  heaven,  Olym- 
pus;  the  Cardinal,  an  augur,  and  the  College  of  Cardinals, 
Senatus  sacer ;  the  Pope,  Pontifex  Maximus,  and  his  thun- 
ders, Dirce  ;  Providence,  Fatum  or  Fortuna  ;  and  God,  Jupi- 
ter Optimus  Maximus !  Erasmus  had  a  more  intelligent 
appreciation  of  Ciceronian  Latinity  than  Bembo,  and  pro- 
tested against  such  absurd  pedantry  as  characterized  human- 
ism in  its  dotage. 

The  gates  of  Dante's  Paradise,  which  were  formerly  shut 
even  to  Homer  and  Virgil,  to  Plato  and  Aristotle,  were  now 
thrown  open  to  the  beloved  heathen,  and  their  Christian  suc- 
cessors welcomed  them  to  honored  seats  in  the  realm  of  glory. 
Even  Erasmus  recognized  a  sort  of  divine  inspiration  in  the 
ancient  classics,  and  was  tempted  to  pray  :  "  Sancte  Socrates, 
or  a  pro  nobis  !  " 

As  to  religion,  the  majority  of  humanists  and  artists  of  the 
Renaissance  were  either  entirely  indifferent,  or  they  outwardly 
conformed  to  the  tradition  and  ceremonial  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  while  inwardly  they  leaned  to  skepticism, 
heresy,  and  infidelity.  Some  of  the  most  frivolous  were  serv- 
ants of  the  pope  and  members  of  the  clerical  order.  We 
find  in  the  age  of  the  Renaissance  the  same  unnatural  com- 
bination of  a  nominal  Catholicism  with  real  irreligion  as 
among  the  educated  classes  in  the  Latin  races  of  to-day. 
Religion  is  deemed  good  enough  for  women  and  children  : 
but  men  have  a  substitute  for  it  in  education  and  culture. 
Indifferentism  or  infidelity  in  days  of  health  and  wealth ; 
confession  and  absolution  in  sickness  and  on  the  death-bed. 
Machiavelli  died  with  the  consolations  of  the  Church  which 
he  undermined  in  his  writings.  Dante  was  a  devout  Catho- 
lic, though  very  bold  in  his  censures  of  the  popes;  Petrarca 
combined  love  of  Cicero  with  love  of  St.  Augustin,  and  com- 
plained that  some  of  his  contemporaries  considered  high  cul- 
ture incompatible  with  the  Christian  profession  ;  Traversari 
strictly  observed  the  rules  of  his  monastic  order ;  Manetti, 
Leonardo  Bruni,  Vittorino  da  Feltre,  Marsilio  Ficino,  Sado- 


The  Revival  of  Paganism  in  Italy.  95 

leto,  Vittoria  Colonna,  Reuchlin,  Erasmus,  were  Christian 
believers.  But  Poggio,  Filelfo,  Valla,  and  the  majority  of 
humanists  cared  little  or  nothing  for  religion,  and  yet  were 
not  serious  enough  to  investigate  the  truth,  nor  independent 
enough  to  run  the  risk  of  an  open  rupture  with  orthodoxy, 
which  would  have  subjected  them  to  the  Inquisition  and 
death  at  the  stake.1  Humanism  was  substituted  for  Christi- 
anity, the  worship  of  art  and  eloquence  for  reverence  to 
truth  and  holiness.  Homer  was  "  the  unknown  God,"  and 
Cicero  the  chief  patron  saint  of  the  Renaissance.  The  liberal 
scholars  of  Bologna  and  Padua  denied  the  immortality  of  the 
soul,  and  the  Lateran  Council  of  1512  found  it  necessary  to 
proclaim  it  as  an  article  of  faith. 

The  weakest  point  in  the  humanists  was  their  lack  of  serious 
morality,  which  can  never  be  separated  from  religion.  They 
were  the  natural  enemies  of  the  monks,  who  as  a  class 
hated  learning,  boasted  of  superior  piety,  made  a  display 
of  their  proud  humility,  and  yet  constantly  quarrelled  with 
each  other.  Boccaccio  and  the  novelists  selected  monks  and 
nuns  as  heroes  and  heroines  of  their  obscene  tales.  Poggio, 
Filelfo,  Valla,  Erasmus,  and  the  writers  of  the  Epistola 
Virorum  Obscurorum  chastised  with  caustic  irony  and  satire 
the  hypocrisy  and  vices  of  the  monks,  and  they  could  do  so 
without  impunity ;  for  the  monks  were  not  the  Church. 

But  the  humanists  were  blind  to  the  self-denying  virtues  of 
monasticism.  Their  own  moral  code  was  more  pagan  than 
Christian.  They  resembled  the  Sophists  of  Greece  in  arro- 

1  Voigt  (II.,  213) :  "  Keiner  der  Humanisten  hat  sich  o/en  und prineipiell 
gegen  Christenthum  oder  Kirche  zu  erkldren  gewagt.  Auch  vor  dogmatischen 
Abweichungen  schiltzte  sie  ihre  Gleichgilltigkeit  gegen  alle  Kirchenlehre  und 

Theologie.  Selbst  Valla  stellte  seine  verketzeiten  Behauptungen  mehr  nur  auf, 
urn  seine  pfdffischen  Feinde  zu  argern,  nicht  urn  ihrer  sebst  witten.  Auch 
waren  diese  literarischen  Helden  viel  zu  sekr  Hoflinge,  urn  gegen  die  convention- 
ellen  Formen  der  Kirche  Stellung  zu  nehmen.  Aber  trots  dem  war  der  Kreis 
ihrer  Gedanken  und  Ideale  ein  grundlich  anderer  ah  der  kirchliche  und  chnst- 
liche  Im  Stillen  und  im  Verkehr  mit  einander  wucherte  das  hetdmsche 

Wesen,  und  im  besten  Fall  ersetzte  eine  stoische  Ethik  die  Gebote  der  Religion 
Im  Ganzen  war  der  Humanismus  zweifelks  ein  geborener  Feind  der 
'Kirche,  der  ihre  Grundlagen  unterhohlte,  den  Pafstthum  und  Prdlatur  , 
eine  gefdhrliche  Schlange  am  Busen  hcgten." 


gfc  The  Renaissance. 

gance,  vanity,  and  want  of  principle  and  dignity.  They 
were  full  of  envy  and  jealousy,  and  in  their  disgraceful  per- 
sonal quarrels  they  spared  no  epithet  of  abuse.  In  their 
admiration  for  the  culture  and  virtues  of  the  ancient  Greeks 
and  Romans,  they  excused  and  imitated,  or  even  surpassed, 
their  faults  and  vices. 

They  usually  professed  the  Stoic  morality,  which  comes 
nearest  to  the  Christian  standard,  but  is  compatible  with  in- 
ordinate pride,  ambition,  and  haughty  contempt  of  the 
uncultured  multitude.  They  cared  for  the  appearance,  rather 
than  the  substance  of  virtue.  Machiavelli,  the  brilliant  Flor- 
entine politician  and  historian,  a  worshipper  of  ability  and 
power,  and  admirer  of  Caesar  Borgia  —  that  master  in  the  art 
of  vice,  —  built  upon  the  basis  of  the  Renaissance  a  political 
system  of  absolute  egotism  ;  yet  he  demands  of  the  prince 
that  he  shall  guard  the  appearance  of  five  virtues  to 
deceive  the  ignorant.1  Under  the  cover  of  Stoicism  many 
humanists  indulged  in  a  refined  Epicureanism. 

The  writings  of  the  humanists  abound  in  offences  against 
morality  and  decency.  Poggio  was  already  seventy  years  of 
age  when  he  published  his  filthy  Facetice,  which  appeared 
twenty-six  times  in  print  before  1500,  and  in  three  Italian 
translations.2  Filelfo's  epigrams,  De  Jocis  et  Seriis,  are  de- 
clared by  Rosmini,  his  biographer,  to  contain  "  horrible  ob- 
scenities and  expressions  from  the  streets  and  the  brothels." 
Beccadelli  and  Aretino  openly  preached  the  emancipation 
of  the  flesh,  and  were  not  ashamed  to  embellish  and  glorify 
licentiousness  in  brilliant  verses,  for  which  they  received  the 
homage  of  princes  and  prelates.  The  Hermaphroditus  of 
the  former  was  furiously  attacked  by  the  monks  in  the 
pulpit,  but  applauded  by  the  humanists.  Pietro  Aretino 
(1492-1557),  the  most  obscene  poet  of  Italy,  was  called  il 
divino  Aretino,  honored  by  Charles  V.,  Francis  I.,  and  Clem- 


1  The  principles  of  his  Principe  are  fully  discussed  by  Villari  in  his 
velli,  II.,  403-473,  and  by  Symonds,  Age  of  the  Despots,  Ch.  VI.  (p.  306  sqq.). 

8  Burckhardt  says  (p.  273)  :  "  Poggio's  works  contain  dirt  enough  to  create  a 
prejudice  against  the  whole  class  —  and  these  '  Opera  Poggii'  were  just  those 
most  frequently  printed  on  the  north,  as  well  as  the  south,  side  of  the  Alps." 


The  Revival  of  Paganism  in  Italy.  97 

ent  VII.,  and  dared  even  to  aspire  to  a  cardinal's  hat,  but 
found  a  miserable  end.' 

There  was  nothing  in  the  principles  of  the  humanists  to 
prevent  the  practice  of  licentiousness.  With  some  honorable 
exceptions,  they  had  no  scruples  about  keeping  mistresses,  or 
violating  the  vow  of  chastity.  The  law  of  sacerdotal  celibacy 
is  responsible  for  a  great  deal  of  sexual  immorality,  but 
affords  only  a  partial  excuse.  Boccaccio's  Decamerone  re- 
veals and  palliates  the  wide  extent  of  sexual  offences  among 
priests  and  monks.  In  no  century  were  so  many  decrees 
passed  by  councils  against  the  concubinage  of  the  clergy 
as  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth.  There  is  reason  to 
believe  that  the  unnatural  vice  to  which  the  Greeks  gave 
their  name,  reappeared  among  some  of  the  humanists ;  for 
they  not  unfrequently  charged  each  other  with  it." 

Among  the  artists  of  the  Renaissance  we  find,  as  well  as 
among  the  humanists,  some  pure  and  saintly  men,  like  Fra 
Giovanni  and  Fra  Bartolommeo ;  but,  as  a  class,  they  were  no 
better  than  the  scholars,  and,  if  possible,  even  more  lax  in 
regard  to  sexual  license.3 

1  He  published  lascivious  Sonetti  lussuriosi  and  pornographic  Ragionamenti, 
but  also  pious  romances.  He  furnished  the  text  to  a  series  of  obscene  pictures 
of  Giulio  Romano.  See  Mazzuchelli,  Vita  di  Pietro  Aretino,  Padua,  1741,  and 
Symonds,  Hal.  Lit.,  II.,  383  sqq.  Reumont  (Hist,  of  Rome,  III.,  Part  II.,  367) 
calls  Aretino  "die  Schandsdule  der  Literatur." 

9  Voigt,  II. ,  471  :  "  Es  ist  kdn  Z-weifel,  dass  auchjene  geschlechtliche  Verir- 
rung,  zu  deren  Bezeichnung  das  Volk  der  Griechen  seinen  Namen  leiht,  in 
Italien  wahrend  des  15.  Jahrh.  nicht  nur  in  einzelnen  Fallen  und  im  scheuen 
Dunkel  sick  regie,  sondern  hier  und  dort  wie  cine  moralische  Pest  herrschte, 
.  .  .  Neapel,  Florenz  und  Siena  werden  als  die  Hauptsitze  aller  Schwel- 
gerei  und  der  unnaturlichen  Laster  bezeichnet. 

3  Speaking  of  the  Italian  artists  of  that  period,  Mrs.  Jameson  says  :  "  There 
prevailed  with  this  pagan  taste  in  literature  and  art  a  general  laxity  of  morals, 
a  license  of  conduct,  and  a  disregard  of  all  sacred  things  such  as  had  never, 
even  in  the  darkest  ages  of  barbarism,  been  known  in  Italy.  The  papal  chair 
was  during  that  period  filled  by  two  popes,  the  perfidious  and  cruel  Sixtus  IV., 
and  the  more  detestable  Alexander  VI.  (the  infamous  Borgia).  Florence, 
meantime,  under  the  sway  of  Lorenzo  and  his  sons,  became  one  of  the  most 
magnificent,  but  also  one  of  the  most  dissolute  of  cities.  "—Memoirs  of  Early 
Italian  Painters,  new  ed.,  London  (J.  Murray)  1868,  p.  154-  Comp.  Gnmm  s 
Michelangelo,  I.,  114  sqq. 
7 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

THE   STATE   OF   MORALS   IN   ROME. 

The  moral  corruption  centred  in  Rome  and  spread  its 
poisonous  influence  over  all  Italy,  and  even  beyond  the  Alps. 

The  popes  of  the  Renaissance  from  Nicolas  V.  to  Leo  X., 
were  successors  of  Maecenas  rather  than  of  St.  Peter,  and 
one  of  them  was  equal  to  Caiaphas  among  the  high  priests 
of  Israel.  They  were  intolerant  of  open  heresy,  but  not  of 
open  immorality  and  secret  infidelity.  Alexander  VI.  caused 
the  death  of  Savonarola,  the  moral 'reformer,  while  he  him- 
self committed  the  boldest  crimes.  Leo  X.  condemned 
Luther,  while  he  himself  doubted  the  truth  of  Christianity. 
Immorality  did  not  debar  from  promotion  to  the  highest 
dignities.  The  popes  maintained  in  the  hierarchical  interest 
the  laws  of  sacerdotal  celibacy,  but  allowed  them  to  be 
broken  by  prelates  in  their  confidence  and  employ. 

Pius  II.  (i458-'64)  was  a  great  scholar,  but  held  immoral 
connections  in  his  youth  and  early  manhood,  and  frivolously 
shielded  his  illegitimate  offspring  by  an  appeal  to  David  and 
Solomon. 

Sixtus  IV.  (i47i-'84)  was  a  great  builder,  but  also  a 
shameless  promoter  of  nepotism.  He  sanctioned  the  con- 
spiracy of  the  Pazzi  against  the  Medici.  He  felt  no  scruple 
in  taxing  and  thereby  legalizing  houses  of  prostitution  for 
the  increase  of  the  revenues  of  the  Curia.  In  1490  (that  is, 
before  the  appearance  of  syphilis)  there  were  in  Rome  no 
less  than  6,800  public  prostitutes, — an  enormous  number  in 
proportion  to  the  population.1  All  parts  of  Italy  and  Spain 

1  Infessura,  in  Eccard,  Scriplores,  II.,  1997,  quoted  by  Burckhardt,  Die  Cul- 
tur  der  Renaissance,  p.  316  (p.  400  of  the  English  translation).  He  adds : 
"  The  public  women  only,  not  the  kept  women  are  meant." 

98 


The  State  of  Morals  in  Rome.  99 

contributed  to  the  number  of  courtesans.  They  lived  in 
greater  splendor  in  Rome  than  the  hetasrae  in  Athens,  and 
bore  classical  names,  such  as  Diana,  Lucrezia,  Camilla,  Giulia, 
Costanza,  Imperia,  Beatrice.  They  were  accompanied  on 
their  promenades  and  walks  to  the  church  by  poets,  counts, 
and  prelates,  but  usually  concluded  their  gilded  misery  in 
hospitals  after  their  beauty  had  faded  away.1 

Innocent  VIII.  (i484-'92)  brought  into  the  Vatican 
several  bastard  sons  and  daughters  by  different  women,  and 
was  sarcastically  called  "  the  guilty  father  of  Rome." 5  He 
practised  nepotism  without  restraint,  and  revoked  an  order 
of  the  papal  Vicar  which  forbade  clergymen  and  laymen  to 
keep  concubines.  "  Avarice,  venality,  sloth,  and  the  ascen- 
dency of  base  favorites  made  his  reign  loathsome  without 
the  blaze  and  splendor  of  the  scandals  of  his  fiery  predeces- 
sor. In  corruption  he  advanced  a  step  even  beyond  Sixtus, 
by  establishing  a  bank  at  Rome  for  the  sale  of  pardons. 
Each  sin  had  its  price,  which  might  be  paid  at  the  conven- 
ience of  the  criminal:  150  ducats  of  the  tax  were  to  be 
poured  into  the  papal  treasury ;  the  surplus  fell  to  Fran- 
ceschetto,  the  pope's  son.  .  .  .  This  traffic  filled  the 
Campagna  with  brigands  and  assassins.  ...  In  the 
city  itself  more  than  two  hundred  persons  were  publicly 
assassinated  with  impunity  during  the  last  months  of  the 
pope's  life."  ' 

Alexander  VI.  (1492-1 503),  the  infamous  Roderigo  Borgia, 
surpassed  all  his  predecessors  in  wickedness.  He  is  the  Nero 
among  the  popes.  He  combined  the  talents  and  vices  of  his 
native  Spain  with  those  of  Italy.  He  was  handsome,  impos- 
ing, eloquent,  brilliant,  temperate  in  eating,  affable,  and  per- 

'  Von  Reumont,  Gesch.  der  Stadt  Rom.,  III.,  P.  II.,  461  sjf.  Aretino  who 
was  at  home  in  this  company,  embellished  it  with  consummate  poetic  skill. 
Symonds  remarks  (Revival  of  Learning,  p.  406)  :  "  At  Rome  virtuous  women 
had  no  place  ;  but  Phryne  lived  again  in  the  person  of  Impena. 

8  "  Octo  Nocens  genuit  pueros  totidemque  puellas >, 
Nunc  merito  poterit  dicer e  Roma  patrem" 

•  Symonds,  Age  of  the  Despots,  p.  403  *.  A  Roman  who  had  killed  two  of 
his  own  daughters  bought  pardon  for  800  ducats. 


ioo  The  Renaissance. 

suasive,  but  a  slave  to  ambition,  avarice,  and  sensuality,  and 
utterly  unscrupulous  in  the  choice  of  means  for  the  gratifica- 
tion of  these  towering  passions.  His  contemporaries  believed 
him  capable  of  any  crime,  even  that  of  incest  with  his  beautiful 
daughter  Lucrezia,  which,  however,  is  probably  unfounded.1 
He  had  five  children  by  the  adulterous  Rosa  Vannozza, 
and  used  his  power  for  their  aggrandizement.  He  also  had 
carnal  intercourse  with  Giulia  Farnese,  surnamed  La  Bella,  the 
titular  wife  of  Orsino  Orsini.  He  turned  the  Vatican  into  an 
Oriental  harem.  He  had  bought  the  papal  tiara  by  bribing 
the  cardinals,  who  had  bought  their  hats  with  gold  and 
were  ready  to  sell  their  votes  to  the  highest  bidder.  He 
abundantly  repaid  himself  for  the  outlay.  He  sold  the 
highest  dignities  for  enormous  sums.  Twelve  cardinals'  hats 
were  put  up  at  auction  in  a  single  day.  He  created  eigh- 
teen Spanish  cardinals,  five  of  whom  belonged  to  the  house 
of  Borgia.  He  gave  rise  to  the  saymg:  "Alexander  sells 
the  keys,  the  altars,  Christ.  Well,  he  bought  them ;  so  he 
has  a  right  to  sell  them."  A  Carmelite  dared  to  preach 
against  simony  in  1494,  but  was  soon  found  murdered  in  his 
bed,  with  twenty  wounds.  After  fattening  his  prelates,  he 
poisoned  them.  Onufrio  Panvinio,  the  official  epitomizer  of 
the  history  of  the  popes,  mentions  three  cardinals,  Orsini, 
Ferrerio,  and  Michiel,  whom  Alexander  sent  to  the  sleep  of 
death.2  The  same  writer  says  that  he  would  have  put  all 
the  other  rich  cardinals  and  prelates  out  of  the  way  to  get 
their  property,  had  he  not,  in  the  midst  of  his  great  plans 
for  his  son,  been  struck  down  by  death.*  His  second  son, 

1  Lucrezia  bore  a  good  character  after  her  third  marriage  to  Alfonso  d'Este, 
Crown  Prince  of  Ferrara,  and  gave  herself  much  to  acts  of  devotion  and  charity, 
as  well  as  to  the  patronage  of  letters.     She  wore  a  Spanish  costume  and  was 
saluted  by  Spanish  buffoons  at  her  entrance  to  Ferrara.     Her  first  marriage 
was  dissolved  by  the  pope  ;  the  second  ended  with  the  murder  of  her  husband 
by  her  brother  Cesare,  who  was  also  charged  with  incest.     See  Gregorovius, 
Lucrezia  Borgia,  Stuttgart,  3d  ed.,  1876,  2  vols. 

2  Epitome  Pontificum,  p.  359,  quoted  by  Burckhardt,  116,  note. 

3  Contin.   Platinee,    p.   341.      Burckhardt  adds  to  this  quotation  (p.    117): 
"  And  what  might  not  Csesar  have  achieved  if,  at  the  moment  when  his  father 
died,  he  had  not  himself  been  laid  upon  a  sick-bed  !     What  a  conclave  would 
that  have  been,  in  which,  armed  with  all  his  weapons,  he  had  extorted  his  elec- 


The  State  of  Morals  in  Rome,  101 

Caesar,  who  was  made  an  archbishop  and  cardinal,  and 
aimed,  with  his  father's  consent,  at  succession  to  the 
papal  chair  with  a  view  to  secularize  the  estates  of  the 
Church,  fully  equalled  him  in  genius  for  crime.  He  killed, 
in  true  Spanish  fashion,  six  wild  bulls  in  an  enclosed  court, 
murdered  his  brother,  his  brother-in-law,  and  other  relatives 
and  courtiers,  and  used  to  wander  about  in  the  dark  with 
his  guards  to  gratify  his  insane  thirst  for  blood.  The  Vene- 
tian ambassador,  Paolo  Capello,  reported,  in  the  year  1500, 
that  "  every  night  four  or  five  murdered  men  were  discovered, 
bishops,  prelates,  and  others,  so  that  all  Rome  was  trembling 
for  fear  of  being  destroyed  by  the  Duke  (Caesar)."  When 
caution  was  necessary,  the  Borgias  made  use  of  a  white 
powder  which  had  a  pleasant  taste  and  did  its  work  slowly 
but  surely.  By  an  accidental  taste  of  the  poisoned  cup 
Alexander  died  of  the  same  powder  which  he  and  his  son 
had  prepared  for  a  rieh  cardinal.  Caesar  got  sick  also,  but 
survived  four  years.  According  to  another  account,  they 
were  attacked  by  a  malignant  fever  during  the  meal ;  while 
the  pope's  physician  ascribed  his  death  to  apoplexy.  The 
legend  says  that  the  devil  carried  off  his  soul,  which  he  had 
sold  to  him  for  the  papacy. 

Alexander  treated  with  the  Sultan  of  Turkey  for  making 
war  upon  "the  most  Christian"  king  of  France  (Charles 
VIII.),  and  divided  the  American  continent,  discovered  by 
Columbus,  between  Spain  and  Portugal,  by  virtue  of  his 
apostolic  power !  * 

tion  from  a  college  whose  numbers  he  had  judiciously  reduced  by  poison— and 
this  at  a  time  when  there  was  no  French  army  at  hand  !  In  pursuing  such  an 
hypothesis  the  imagination  loses  itself  in  an  abyss." 

1  Much  has  been  written  of  late  on  this  pope,  partly  with  the  apologetic  aim 
of  denying  or  whitewashing  his  almost  incredible  crimes,  by  Cerri(i878),Ollivier 
(1870),  Nemec  (1879),  Leonetti  (1880),  Clement  (1882).   H6fler  (1888),  Yriarte 
(1889),  and  others.     I  add  the  description  of  the  nearly  contemporary  Italian 
historian,  Guicciardini  (Storia  Fiorentina,  ch.   27,  as  translated  by  Symonds, 
p   603  sq  )  •   "So  died  Tope  Alexander,  at  the  height  of  glory  and  prosperity  ; 
about  whom  it  must  be  known  that  he  was  a  man  of  the  utmost  power  and  o 
great  judgment  and  spirit,  as  his  actions  and  behavior  showed.     But  as  his  fii 
accession  to  the  papacy  was  foul  and  shameful,  seeing  he  had  bought  with  gc 
so  high  a  station,  in  like  manner  his  government  disagreed  not  with  U 


IO2  The  Renaissance. 

The  Vatican  during  that  period  has  been  compared  to  the 
court  of  the  worst  emperors  of  heathen  Rome,  with  the  ex- 
foundation.  There  were  in  him,  and  in  full  measure,  all  vices  both  of  flesh  and 
spirit ;  nor  could  there  be  imagined  in  the  ordering  of  the  Church  a  rule  so  bad 
but  that  he  put  it  into  working.  He  was  most  sensual  toward  both  sexes, 
keeping  publicly  women  and  boys,  but  more  especially  toward  women  (fu 
hisstiriosissimo  nell'  uno  e  nell'  altro  sesso,  tenendo  publicamente  femine  e 
garzoni,  ma  piu  ancora  ne  lie  femine)  \.  and  so  far  did  he  exceed  all  measure  that 
public  opinion  judged  he  knew  Madonna  Lucrezia,  his  own  daughter,  toward 
whom  he  bore  a  most  tender  and  boundless  love.  He  was  exceedingly  avari- 
cious, not  in  keeping  what  he  had  acquired,  but  in  getting  new  wealth :  and 
where  he  saw  a  way  toward  drawing  money,  he  had  no  respect  whatever  ;  in 
his  days  were  sold  as  at  auction  all  benefices,  dispensations,  pardons,  bishop- 
rics, cardinalships,  and  all  court  dignities  :  unto  which  matters  he  had  appointed 
two  or  three  men  privy  to  his  thought,  exceeding  prudent,  who  let  them  out  to 
the  highest  bidder.  He  caused  tha  death  by  poison  of  many  cardinals  and 
prelates,  even  among  his  intimates,  those  namely  whom  he  noted  to  be  rich  in 
benefices  and  understood  to  have  hoarded  much,  with  the  view  of  seizing  on 
their  wealth.  His  cruelty  was  great,  seeing  that  by  his  directions  many  were 
put  to  violent  death  ;  nor  was  the  ingratitude  less  with  which  he  caused  the 
ruin  of  the  Sforzeschi  and  Colonnesi,  by  whose  favor  he  acquired  the  papacy. 
There  was  in  him  no  religion,  no  keeping  of  his  troth  :  he  promised  all  things 
liberally,  but  stood  to  nought  but  what  was  useful  to  himself :  no  care  for 
justice,  since  in  his  days  Rome  was  like  a  den  of  thieves  and  murderers  :  his 
ambition  was  boundless,  and  such  that  it  grew  in  the  same  measure  as  his  state 
increased  :  nevertheless,  his  sins  meeting  with  no  due  punishment  in  this  world, 
he  was  to  the  last  of  his  days  most  prosperous.  While  young  and  still  almost  a 
boy,  having  Calixtus  for  his  uncle,  he  was  made  cardinal  and  then  vice- 
chancellor  :  in  which  high  place  he  continued  till  his  papacy,  with  great 
revenue,  good  fame,  and  peace.  Having  become  pope,  he  made  Cesare,  his 
bastard  son  and  bishop  of  Pampeluna,  a  cardinal,  against  the  ordinances  and 
decrees  of  the  Church,  which  forbid  the  making  of  a  bastard  cardinal  even  with 
the  pope's  dispensation,  wherefore  he  brought  proof  by  false  witnesses  that  he 
was  born  in  wedlock.  Afterwards  he  made  him  a  layman  and  took  away  the 
cardinal's  dignity  from  him,  and  turned  his  mind  to  making  a  realm ;  wherein 
he  fared  far  better  than  he  purposed,  and,  beginning  with  Rome,  after  undoing 
the  Orsini,  Colonnesi,  Savelli,  and  those  barons  who  were  wont  to  be  held  in 
fear  by  former  popes,  he  was  more  full  master  of  Rome  than  ever  had  been  any 
pope  before.  With  the  greatest  ease  he  got  the  lordships  of  Romagna,  the  March, 
and  the  Duchy  ;  and  having  made  a  most  fair  and  powerful  state,  the  Floren- 
tines held  him  in  much  fear,  the  Venetians  in  jealousy,  and  the  king  of  France 
in  esteem.  Then  having  got  together  a  fine  army,  he  showed  how  great  was 
the  might  of  a  pontiff  when  he  hath  a  valiant  general  and  one  in  whom  he 
can  place  faith.  At  last  he  grew  to  that  point  that  he  was  counted  the  balance 
in  the  war  of  France  and  Spain.  In  one  word  he  was  more  evil  and  more 
lucky  than  ever  for  many  ages  perad venture  had  been  any  pope  before." 


The  State  of  Morals  in  Rome.  103 

ception  that  the  places  of  married  ladies  were  occupied  by 
concubines.  The  girls  of  higher  society  were  kept  in  strict 
seclusion;  but  adulteries  and  assassinations  from  jealousy 
were  fearfully  frequent.1 

It  is  characteristic  of  the  reign  of  the  Borgias  that  the 
sudden  death  of  any  distinguished  man  usually  suggested 
the  suspicion  of  poisoning.3  No  stain  attached  to  illegiti- 
mate birth  whether  from  maidens  or  wives.  Deception  was 
expected  from  everybody,  and  only  that  deceiver  was  de- 
spised who  allowed  himself  to  be  deceived  by  another. 
Revenge  (bella  vendetta)  was  regarded  as  praiseworthy, 
when  practised  for  the  purpose  of  teaching  caution.  There 
have  been  bad  priests  in  all  ages ;  but  it  will  be  difficult  to 
find  one  who  was  gradually  driven  by  passion  from  crime  to 
crime  till  he  came  to  be  the  head  of  a  band  of  robbers. 
And  yet  such  a  monster  lived  in  Italy  during  the  pontificate 
of  Alexander  VI.3 

1  Burckhardt  (p.  443)  quotes  from  Bandello,  the  novelist,  who  died  1506  : 
"  Nowadays  we  see  a  woman  poison  her  husband  to  gratify  her  lusts,  thinking 
that  a  widow  may  do  whatever  she  desires.      Another,  fearing  the  discovery  of 
an  illicit  amour,  has  her  husband  murdered  by  her  lover.     And  though  fathers, 
brothers,  and  husbands  arise  to  extirpate  the  shame  with  poison,  with  the  sword, 
and  by  every  other  means,  women  still  continue  to  follow  their  passions,  careless 
of  their  honor  and  their  lives."     Another  time,  in  a  milder  strain,  he  exclaims  : 
"  Would  that  we  were  not  daily  forced  to  hear  that  one  man  has  murdered  his 
wife  because  he  suspected  her  of  infidelity  ;  that  another  has  killed  his  daughter, 
on  account  of  a  secret  marriage  ;  that  a  third  has  caused  his  sister  to  be  mur- 
dered, because  she  would  not  marry  as  he  wished  !     It  is  great  cruelty  that  we 
claim  the  right  to  do  whatever  we  list,  and  will  not  suffer  women  to  do  the 
same. " 

2  This  was  the  case  also  in  other  Italian  cities  at  that  time.     "  The  Sforzas, 
the  Aragonese  monarchs,  the  Republic  of  Venice,  and,  later  on,  the  agents  of 
Charles  V.,  resorted  to  murder  as  one  of  the  instruments  of  their  power  when- 
ever it  suited  their  purpose.     The  imagination  of  the  people  at  last  became  so 
accustomed  to  facts  of  this  kind,  that  the  death  of  any  powerful  man  was  seldom 
or  never  attributed  to  natural  causes.     .     .     .     There  may  be  some  truth  in  the 
story  of  that  terrible  white  powder  used  by  the  Borgias,  which  did  its  work  at 
the  end  of  a  definite  period." — Burckhardt,  p.  451.     Grimm  makes  the  same  re- 
mark (Mick.  Ang.,  I.,  114) :     " Kein  bedeutender  Mann  [start}  damals,  dessen 
Tod  nicht  zu  dem  Geriichte  einer  Vergiftung  Anlass  gab." 

3  Burckhardt  relates  his  story,  p.  449  (from  the  Diario  Ferrarese  in  Murat., 
XXIV.,  312) :     "  On  August  12,  1495,  the  priest  Don  Niccolo  de'  Pelegati  of 


IO4  The  Renaissance. 

Julius  II.  (i5O3-'i3)  was  a  great  improvement  upon  Alex- 
ander, but  he,  too,  cared  more  for  the  temporal  than  the 
spiritual  interests  of  the  papacy.  He  represents  the  reign 
of  Mars  after  that  of  Venus.  He  devoted  his  time,  with 
brilliant  success,  to  war,  diplomacy,  and  art.  He  bent  all 
his  energy  upon  the  consolidation  of  the  temporal  power  of 
the  papacy  at  the  expense  of  Italy.  He  encouraged  Raphael 
and  Michel  Angelo,  and  began  the  new  Church  of  St.  Peter. 
He  suffered  from  that  Gallic  disease  which  is  the  result  of 
unlawful  indulgence,  so  that  he  could  not  cross  his  feet  for 
adoration  on  Good  Friday.1 

Leo  X.  (i5i3-'2i),  the  last  and  most  prodigal  Renaissance 
pope,  entered  upon  his  office  with  the  determination  "  to  en- 
joy the  papacy  which  God  had  given  him."  z  And  he  carried 
it  out.  He  was  free  from  gross  vices,  as  far  as  known,  but  ut- 
terly worldly,  a  cultivated  heathen,  a  good-natured  follower  of 
Epicurus.  His  remark  about  "  the  profitable  fable  of  Christ " 
is  probably  a  myth,  but  it  characterizes  the  skeptical  atmos- 
phere around  him.  He  attended  mass  in  the  morning,  and 
the  theatre  in  the  evening.  He  kept  an  extravagant  table, 
wasted  the  treasury  of  the  curia,  and  accumulated  an  enor- 
mous debt,  for  the  payment  of  which  the  very  jewels  of  his 
tiara  were  pledged.  He  was  immoderately  fond  of  the 
chase,  of  comedy,  and  jests.  He  kept  one  hundred  grooms 
for  the  service  of  his  stable.  His  love  of  buffoonery,  says 
Roscoe,  his  admirer,  "was  carried  to  such  an  extent  that  his 
courtiers  and  attendants  could  not  more  effectually  obtain 

Figarolo  was  shut  up  in  an  iron  cage  outside  the  tower  of  San  Giuliano  at 
Ferrara.  He  had  twice  celebrated  mass  ;  the  first  time  he  had  the  same 
day  committed  murder,  but  afterwards  received  absolution  at  Rome  ;  he  then 
killed  four  people  and  married  two  wives,  with  whom  he  travelled  about.  He 
afterwards  took  part  in  many  assassinations,  violated  women,  carried  others  away 
by  force,  plundered  far  and  wide,  and  infested  the  territory  of  Ferrara  with  a 
band  of  followers  in  uniform,  extorting  food  and  shelter  by  every  sort  of  vio- 
lence. When  we  think  of  what  all  this  implies,  the  mass  of  guilt  on  the  head 
of  this  one  man  is  something  tremendous." 

1  His  master  of  ceremonies  assigns  as  the  reason  (as  quoted  by  Roscoe),  ' '  quia 
totus  erat  ex  morbo  Gallico  alterosus." 

4  "  Godiamoci  il  papato,  poichl  Dio  ce  ?  ha  dato"  he  said  to  his  brother 
Giuliano  after  his  election. 


The  State  of  Morals  in  Rome.  105 

his  favor  than  by  introducing  to  him  such  persons  as,  by 
their  eccentricity,  perversity,  or  imbecility  of  mind,  were 
likely  to  exercise  his  mirth."  On  one  occasion  a  harlequin 
monk  furnished  the  mirth  at  table  by  his  extraordinary 
voracity  in  swallowing  a  pigeon  whole,  and  consuming  forty 
eggs  and  twenty  capons  in  succession. 

And  this  was  the  pope  who  condemned  Martin  Luther 
for  heresy,  and  would  have  burned  him  at  the  stake,  if 
Frederick  of  Saxony  had  delivered  him  to  Rome.  What 
would  have  been  the  fate  of  our  Saviour,  if  he  had  reap- 
peared and  hurled  his  fearful  denunciations  at  the  Pharisees 
and  Sadducees  who  then  sat  in  Moses'  seat  ? 

I  add  a  few  general  testimonies  of  the  ablest,  unprejudiced 
writers  on  the  period  of  the  Renaissance. 

Machiavelli,  a  shrewd  and  cool  observer  of  men  and 
things,  a  skeptic,  and  even  an  admirer  of  Caesar  Borgia, 
makes  this  remarkable  statement :  "  The  Italians  are  irre- 
ligious and  corrupt  above  others,  because  the  Church  and 
her  representatives  set  us  the  worst  example."  He  asserts, 
moreover,  that,  "  in  proportion  as  we  approach  nearer  the 
Roman  Church,  we  find  less  piety,"  and  that,  "  owing  to 
the  evil  example  of  the  papal  court,  Italy  has  lost  all  piety 
and  all  religion,  whence  follow  infinite  troubles  and  dis- 
orders ;  for,  as  religion  implies  all  good,  so  its  absence 
implies  the  contrary."  l  He  makes  the  papacy  responsible 
for  the  divisions  in  Italy,  and  this  charge  is  confirmed 
by  the  irreconcilable  hostility  of  the  latest  popes  to  Italian 
unity  and  independence.  Guicciardini,  who  was  secretary 
and  vice-gerent  of  the  Medicean  popes,  makes  another  start- 
ling confession  in  his  "  Aphorisms  "  (1529) :  "  My  position 
at  the  court  of  several  popes  has  compelled  me  to  desire 
their  aggrandizement  for  the  sake  of  my  own  profit.  Other- 
wise I  should  have  loved  Martin  Luther  like  myself — not 
that  I  might  break  loose  from  the  laws  which  Christianity, 
as  it  is  usually  understood  and  explained,  lays  upon  us,  but 
that  I  might  see  that  horde  of  villains  (questa  caterva  di 

1  Discorsi,  Lib.  I.,  cap.  12.     Comp.  cap.  55  :     "  Italy  is  more  corrupt  than 
all  other  countries  ;  then  come  the  French  and  the  Spaniards." 


io6  The  Renaissance, 

scellerati)  reduced  within  due  limits,  and  forced  to  live 
either  without  vices  or  without  power."  We  have  even 
the  contemporary  testimony  of  a  pope,  Adrian  VI.,  a 
Dutchman,  who  was  elected  after  Leo  X.,  as  a  reforming 
pope,  but  who  reigned  less  than  two  years  (from  January  9, 
1522,  to  September  14,  1523),  and  was  followed  by  another 
Medici  (Clement  VII.).  He  admitted  through  his  legate, 
Francesco  Chieregati,  at  the  Diet  of  Niirnberg,  March, 
1522,  "  that  for  some  time  many  abominations,  abuses,  and 
violations  of  rights  have  taken  place  in  the  Holy  See  ;  and 
that  all  things  have  been  perverted  into  bad.  From  the 
head  the  corruption  has  passed  to  the  limbs,  from  the  pope 
to  the  prelates ;  we  have  all  gone  astray,  there  is  none  that 
doeth  good,  no,  not  one." ' 

Passing  to  modern  historians,  Gregorovius  says,  of  the 
age  of  Leo  X.,  in  the  eighth  volume  of  his  "  History 
of  the  City  of  Rome  :  "  The  richest  intellectual  life  blos- 
somed in  a  swamp  of  vices."  !  According  to  Burckhardt, 
the  rights  of  marriage  were  more  often  and  more  deliberately 
trampled  under  foot  in  Italy  than  anywhere  else,  and  at  the 

1  Opere  inedite,  Vol.  I.  ;  Ricordi,  No.  28.     Quoted  by  Burckhardt,  p.  464, 
and  by  Symonds,   Age  of  the  Despots,    452   sq.     Symonds   adds  :    "  These 
utterances  are  all  the  more  remarkable,  because  they  do  not  proceed  from  the 
deep  sense  of  holiness  which  animated  reformers  like  Savonarola." 

2  Raynaldus,    ad  ann.,    1522   (AnnaL,    Tom.    XI.,   363)  ;  Schaff,    Church 
History,  VI.,  393  sq. 

3  Geschichte  der   Stadt  Rom,   VIII.,    282  :     "  Das  reichste  geistige  Leben 
bluhte  hier  [in  Rome]  im  Sump f  der  Laster."     In  Vol.  VII.,  411,  he  says: 
"  Begier  nach  Macht  und  Genuss  war  der   Trieb  jener  Zeit,  wo  die  Lehre 
Epicures  das  Christenthum  bezwungen  hatte.     Die  wolliistige  Natur  erscheint 
fast  in  jedem  hervorragenden  Menschen  jener  Epochs,  und  Alexander   VI. 
iiber  Kam  Rom  als  einen  moralischen  Sumpf.     .     .     .     Jene  Zeit  ertrug  und 
•veriibte  das  Furchtbare  als  ware  es  Natur.      Wir  Menschen  von  heute  fassen 
das  Kaum.     Die  Borgia  stellten  die  Renaissance  des  Verbrechens  dar,  wie  es 
die  Zeit  des   Tiberius  und  anderer  Kaiser  gesehen  hatte.      Sie  besassen  den 
kilhnsten  Muth  dazu,  aber  das    Verbrechen  selbst  wurde  unter  ihren  Handen 
zum  Kunstwerk.     Diesistes,  warum  Machiavelli,  der politische  Naturforscher 
seiner  Zeit,  einen  Ccesar  Borgia  bewundert  hat.      Gold  war  das  Idol,  vor  dem 
sich  alles  beugte.     Durch  Gold  stitg  Alexander    VI.  auf  den   Thron,  mit  ihm 
behauptete  er  ihn,  und gewann  er  fur  Ccesar  Lander.     Er  that  auch  nur  was 
seine  Vorgdnger  gethan,  wenn  er  jedes  Amt,jede  Gunst,  jedes  Recht  und  Un- 
recht  feil  hot.    Nur  that  er  diess  in  grosseren  Dimensionen." 


The  State  of  Morals  in  Rome.  107 

middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  Italy  was  in  a  moral  crisis, 
out  of  which  the  best  men  saw  no  escape.1  In  the  opinion  of 
Symonds,  who  wrote  seven  volumes  on  the  Renaissance,  it 
is  "  almost  impossible  to  overestimate  the  moral  corruption 
of  Rome  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century."  •  "  The 
chiefs  of  the  Church  with  cynical  effrontery  violated  every 
tradition  of  Christ  and  the  Apostles,  so  that  the  example  of 
Rome  was  in  some  sense  the  justification  of  fraud,  violence, 
lust,  filthy  living,  and  ungodliness  to  the  whole  nation.'" 
"  Never,"  says  Dr.  Woolsey,  "  had  vice  shown  itself  in  such 
frightful  forms  since  Christianity  had  appeared  among  men, 
and  nowhere  was  its  sway  more  fearfully  great  than  in  the 
very  heart  and  centre  of  religion."  4 

Yet  Rome  was  no  worse  than  Genoa,  Venice,  Naples, 
Florence,  and  Paris :  she  was  only  more  dangerous  in  pro- 
portion to  her  power  and  influence.  Everywhere  we  find  an 
unnatural  divorce  of  religion  and  morality.  The  mass  of 
the  people  were  sunk  in  ignorance  and  superstition  ;  while 
the  intellectual  aristocracy  of  the  Church  and  the  State  gave 
the  lie  to  their  Christian  profession  by  heathen  practices. 

We  make  these  statements  and  collect  these  witnesses,  not 
from  any  hatred  to  the  Roman  Church,  which  we  honor  as 
the  Alma  Mater  of  the  Middle  Ages,  but  in  deference  to  the 
truth  of  history. 

And  this  is  the  period  which  modern  ultramontane  his- 
torians, in  their  zeal  for  the  honor  of  the  papacy,  would  fain 
make  us  believe  was  the  golden  age  of  the  Church  ;  while 
the  Reformation  is  condemned  by  them  as  an  apostasy  from 
Christianity  and  the  mother  of  all  evils  of  modern  times ! 
The  Reformation,  on  the  contrary,  saved  the  Church  from  a 
relapse  into  heathenism  and  infidelity.  Without  the  Prot- 
estant Reformation  there  would  have  been  no  Roman 
counter-Reformation. 

1  See  his  chapter  on  the  fall  of  the  humanists  in  the  sixteenth  century,  pp. 
272  sqq.  ;  and  on  their  morality,  431  sqq. 

2  Revival  of  Learning,  p.  406. 

3  Age  of  the  Despots,  p.  447. 

4  On  the  Revival  of  Letters,  in  the  "  New  Englander"  for  1865,  p.  669. 


io8  The  Renaissance. 

When  Erasmus,  in  1506,  visited  literary  and  artistic  Rome 
as  a  renowned  and  idolized  scholar,  he  was  delighted  with 
her  culture  and  refinement,  her  freedom  of  discourse,  her 
large  style  of  life,  the  honeyed  conversation  of  her  scholars, 
and  all  her  works  of  art,  which  only  Lethe  could  efface  from 
his  memory  ;  but  he  admits  in  another  letter  that  abomina- 
ble blasphemies  were  uttered  unpunished  even  by  priestly 
lips  connected  with  the  papal  court.1  When  Luther,  in 
1510,  visited  holy  Rome,  as  an  humble  and  obscure  monk, 
climbing  up  the  Scala  Santa  on  his  knees  with  a  protesting 
conscience,  he  was  shocked  by  the  prevailing  worldliness, 
frivolity,  and  ill-disguised  infidelity,  and  he  afterwards  de- 
clared that  he  would  not  take  a  thousand  guilders  for  that 
experience  which  prepared  him  for  his  crusade  against  the 
Roman  Babylon.2 

The  moral  corruption  of  Rome  and  Italy  in  the  later  half 
of  the  fifteenth  century  and  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth 
is  the  best  justification  of  the  Protestant  Reformation. 

1  Epist.   ad  Augustinum  Eugubinum  (Opera,  ed.  Cleric.  III.,  II.,  p.  1382) : 
"Al  ego  Romce  his  auribus  audivi  quosdam  abominandis  blasphemiis  debacchantes 
in  Christum  et  in  illius  Apostolos,  idque  mullis  mecum  attdientibus,  et  quidem 
impune.     Ibidem  multos  novi,  qui  commemorabant,  se  dicta  Jwrrenda  audisse  a 
quibusdam  sacerdotibus,  aulae  Pontijicice  ministris,  idque  in  ipsa  Missa,  tarn  dare, 
utea  vox  ad  multorum  aures  pervenerit. "    In  another  letter  he  expresses  the  fear 
that  the  revival  of  classical  literature  might  lead  to  a  revival  of  heathenism,  and 
a  revival  of  Hebrew  learning  to  a  revival  of  Judaism  (III.,  I,  p.  189). 

2  He  heard  that  priests  said  over  the  bread  and  wine  in  the  mass  :  ' '  Pants  es, 
pants  manebis  ;  -vinum  es,  vinum  manebis."    A  priest  near  him  dispatched  his  own 
mass  in  the  most  hurried  manner,  and  told  him,  "  passa,  passa,  have  done,  send 
her  Son  soon  home  again  to  our  Lady."     Walch,  Luther's  Werke,  XIV.,  1509  ; 
Mathesius,   Life  of  Luther,   p.   6.      This  agrees  well  with  the  admission  of 
Erasmus  quoted  in  the  preceding  note. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

THE   ART   OF   PRINTING. 

Mich.  Maittaire  :  Annales  Typographici  ab  arlis  invents  originis  ad  aim. 
cum  appendice  ad ann.  1664  (Hagse — Comit.,  IJKJ-^S,  3  torn,  in  5  vols.,  4°;  the 
first  torn,  rewritten,  Amsterdam,  1733). — C.  A.  Schaab :  Geschichte  der  Erfin- 
dung  der  Buchdruckerkunst,  Mainz,  i83o-'3i,  3  vols. — K.  Falkenstein  :  Ge- 
sc  hie  hie  der  Buchdruckerkunst,  Leipzig,  1840,  2d  ed.,  1856. — Dupont :  Histoire 
de  r  imprimerie ,  Paris,  3d  ed.,  1869. — Humphrey:  The  History  of  the  Art  of 
Printing,  London,  1867. — Theo.  L.  De  Vinne  :  The  Invention  of  Printing, 
New  York,  1876,  2d  ed.,  1878. — K.  Faulmann  :  Illustrirte  Geschichte  der  Buch- 
druckerkunst, Wien,  1882. — Antonius  von  der  Linde  :  Geschichte  der  Erfindung 
der  Btichdruckerkunst,  Berlin,  1886,  3  large  vols. — Comp.  also  Fr.  Kapp  :  Ge- 
schichte des  deutschen  Buchhandels,  Leipzig,  1 886  ;  Janssen  :  Geschichte  des 
deutschen  Volkes,  I.,  9-20. 

On  the  technical  part,  see  the  Dictionary  of  Typography,  London,  3d  ed., 
1875,  and  an  elaborate  art.  in  Encyc.  Brit.,  gth  ed.,  vol.  xxiii.,  681-710. — 
The  word  typographus  (according  to  Encyc.  Brit.,  XXIII.,  681),  was  first  used 
in  1488  by  P.  Stephanus  Dulcinius  Scalae,  and  in  1498  by  Erasmus  ;  the  word 
typographia  occurs  first  in  1520. 

Typography,  or  the  art  of  using  movable  metallic  types 
for  indicating  thought,  is  the  most  useful  invention  of  mod- 
ern times,  and  marks  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  civilization. 
It  preserves,  multiplies,  and  cheapens  books,  and  facilitates 
the  collection  of  public  and  private  libraries.  It  is  the  art- 
preserving  art,  and  protects  the  world  against  a  relapse  into 
barbarism.  It  gives  to  the  freedom  of  man  a  two-edged 
sword  for  good  and  evil,  for  truth  and  falsehood. 

Before  this  invention,  books  were  exceedingly  dear  and 
accessible  only  to  a  few.  A  bookseller  of  Milan  demanded 
14  sequins  for  a  copy  of  19  of  Cicero's  Familiar  Letters. 
Poggio  bought  a  Bible  without  the  Psalms  for  25  gold  guild- 
ers, and  offered  it  to  Pope  Nicolas  V.  for  40.  He  sold  to 
Beccadelli  a  copy  of  Livy,  transcribed  by  himself,  for  120 
sequins,  and  bought  with  them  a  piece  of  real  estate  in 

109 


no  The  Renaissance. 

Florence.  He  sold  to  Prince  Leonello  of  Este  the  Letters  of 
St.  Jerome  for  100  gold  guilders  ;  another  copy  was  acquired 
by  Nicolas  V.  for  45  gold  guilders.1  But  after  this  inven- 
tion, every  scholar  could  acquire  a  little  library  and  consult 
it  at  leisure,  with  much  more  ease  than  manuscripts. 

Printing  lessened  the  importance  of  living  teachers,  but 
increased  the  number  of  scholars  and  authors.  Formerly 
Northern  students  had  to  travel  to  Bologna  or  Paris  to  hear 
a  distinguished  lecturer ;  now  they  could  study  at  home. 

Typography  is  a  German  invention,  and  was  first  fully 
made  available  for  the  general  public  by  the  German  and 
Swiss  Reformation  which  gave  wings  to  thoughts  and  words." 

The  real  inventor  of  this  art  was  John  Gensfleisch,  called 
Gutenberg,  of  Mainz  on  the  Rhine  (1397-1468),  who  in  con- 
nection with  John  Fust  or  Faust  (d.  1466)  and  his  son-in-law, 
Peter  Schoffer  (d.  1502),  printed  the  first  books.  He  con- 
cluded a  contract  with  Fust,  a  rich  citizen  of  Mainz,  who 
lent  him  800  gold  guilders  at  6  per  cent.,  Aug.  22,  1450, 
for  the  establishment  of  an  office.  Schoffer  aided  him  in  the 
mechanical  art  of  casting  type.  In  1452  they  began  to  print 
the  Latin  Bible  (Biblia  Latina  Vulgata),  which,  after  great 
difficulties,  was  completed  at  the  end  of  1455  in  two  folios  of 
324  and  317  leaves,  but  without  date  or  name  of  place. 
It  is  called  the  Mazarine  Bible.  Only  a  few  copies  remain. 
The  first  printed  book  which  bears  date,  place,  and  name 

1  Quoted  by  Voigt,  I.e.,  I.,  404  sqq.,  from  Poggio,  Filelfo,  etc. 

*  The  controversy  about  the  person  and  nationality  of  the  inventor  and  the 
place  of  invention  resembles  the  rival  claims  of  seven  cities  to  be  the  birthplace 
of  Homer.  Mainz,  Strassburg,  Bamberg,  Feltre,  and  Haarlem  contend  for  the 
honor.  The  writer  in  the  "  Enc.  Brit.,"  decides  with  Dutch  authorities  in 
favor  of  Laurens  Janszoon  Coster  at  Haarlem,  1445.  But  his  claim  has 
been  effectually  disproved  by  A.  von  der  Linde  (Die  Haarlemsche  Coster- 
Legende,  1870,  and  Gutenberg  :  Geschichteund Erdichtung  aus  den  Quellen  nach- 
gewiesen,  Stuttgart,  1878),  who  shows  that  Coster  was  a  tallow  chandler  and 
innkeeper  and  left  Haarlem  1483,  and  that  the  first  book  of  Haarlem,  entitled 
"Datleiden  Jesu"  dates  from  1485,  and  was  printed  by  Jacob  Bellaert.  The  best 
authorities  agree  on  Gutenberg.  Jacob  Wimpheling  wrote  in  1507  (as  quoted 
by  Janssen,  I.,  9) :  "  Of  no  art  can  we  Germans  be  more  proud  than  of  the  art 
of  printing,  which  made  us  the  intellectual  bearers  of  the  doctrines  of  Chris- 
tianity, of  all  divine  and  earthly  sciences,  and  thus  benefactors  of  the  whole  race." 


The  A  rt  of  Printing.  ill 

of  printers,  is  a  Psalterium,  issued  by  Fust  and  Schoffer, 
August  14,  1457.  It  is  printed  in  large  missal  types  on  fine 
parchment  in  folio,  and  is  admired  as  a  masterpiece  of 
typography.1  Then  followed  from  the  same  firm  the  splen- 
did Biblia  Sacra  Latina,  1462,  printed  from  entirely  new 
types  of  Schoffer,  in  two  folios  of  242  and  239  leaves  in 
double  columns.  It  is  the  Latin  Vulgate  of  Jerome  and 
presents  the  current  text  of  the  i$th  century.  There  were 
in  all  97  editions  of  the  Latin  Bible  printed  between  1455 
and  1500  (16  in  Germany,  10  in  Basel,  9in  France,  and  28  in 
Italy)/  There  were  also  no  less  than  17  editions  of  the  Ger- 
man Bible  printed  between  1462  and  1522  (twelve  years 
before  Luther  completed  his  version  in  1534,  which  far 
outshone  the  old  version).1 

The  destruction  of  the  printing  establishment  of  Fust  and 
Schoffer,  October  27,  1462,  and  the  consequent  dispersion  of 
the  pupils  of  Gutenberg  occasioned  the  spread  of  the  art 
throughout  a  great  part  of  Europe.  Before  the  close  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  we  find  printing-presses  in  Bamberg,  1455 
(or  1456);  Strassburg,  1460  (1471);  Cologne,  1465;  Augs- 
burg, 1468;  Niirnberg,  1473;  Rostock,  1476;  Basel,  1479; 
Leipzig,  1481  ;  also  in  Ulm,  Reutlingen,  Heidelberg,  Lu- 
beck,  Paris,  Lyons,  Copenhagen,  Stockholm,  Prague,  Haar- 
lem, Antwerp,  and  the  leading  cities  of  Italy,  Spain,  and 
Portugal.  William  Caxton  (1412-1492),  who  learned  his 
trade  in  the  Low  Countries,  introduced  the  art  into  Eng- 
land in  1474.  The  number  of  known  printers,  mostly  of 
German  extraction,  before  1 500,  exceeds  one  thousand.4 

Among  the  most  eminent  and  learned  printers  and  pub- 

1  The  first  date  is  said  to  occur  in  the  letters  of  indulgence  issued  in  1454  by 
Nicolas  V.  in  behalf  of  the  kingdom  of  Cyprus  ;  but  these  letters  seem  to  have 
been  printed  at  Frankfort  and  Lttbeck.  See  "  Enc.  Brit.,"  XXIII.,  684. 

*  Reuss  (Geschichte  der  heil.  Schriften  N.  Ts.,  6th  ed.  1887,  p.  545)  says  : 
"  Kein  Buck  ist  in  der  Zeit  unmittdbar  nach  des  Erfindung  des  Bilcherdrucks 
haufiger  gedruckt  warden  als  die  lateinische  Bibel,  bis  1520  ilber  100  Mai.     .    . 
Ge-wiss  ist,  dass  mehrere  undatirte  Ausgaben  den  Anfang  machen.     .     .     .    Du 
dllesten  Drucke  sind  ausserdem  [i.  e.  ausser^  von  Mainz}  van  Strassburg, 
Basel.  Erst  1471  auch  ausser  Deutschland." 

»  See  Schaff,  Church  Hist.,  VI.,  343,  35L 

*  Falkenslein  gives  a  list  of  them,  I.e.,  383-393- 


H2  The  Renaissance. 

lishers  were  Anton  Koburger  (or  Koberger),  of  Niirnberg,  the 
king  of  printers,  who  employed  over  a  hundred  workmen ; 
John  Amerbach  and  John  Froben,  in  Basel,  who  were  in  close 
friendship  with  Erasmus  ;  Froschauer,  in  Zurich,  who  pub- 
lished the  writings  of  Zwingli  and  the  Swiss  Bible ;  the 
Stephens  family  (Etienne),  in  Paris,  which  died  out  in  1598 ; 
the  families  of  Blaen,  Plantin,  and  Elzevir,  in  the  Nether- 
lands ;  and  of  Aldus  Manutius,  in  Venice  (down  to  Aldus 
Manutius  II.,  who  died  October  28,  1597).  These  publishers 
were  as  much  interested  in  the  diffusion  of  sound  knowledge 
as  in  the  mechanical  and  financial  part  of  their  profession. 
Italy  deserves  the  merit  of  having  embellished  and  per- 
fected the  art.  The  first  printing  establishments  were 
founded  by  Germans  in  the  Benedictine  abbey  of  Subiaco 
and  at  Rome  ("  in  cedibus  Petri  de  Maximis  "),  1465  and  1467, 
by  two  Germans,  Pannartz  and  Schweinheim.  Then  fol- 
lowed Milan,  1469  ;  Foligno,  1470  ;  Verona,  1470  ;  Bologna, 
1471  ;  Ferrara,  1471  ;  Florence,  1471  ;  Naples,  Pavia,  Parma, 
Padua,  Brescia,  Genoa,  Turin,  etc.  The  most  splendid 
Italian  printing  establishment  was  founded  by  Aldus  Ma- 
nutius (Aldo  Manuzio),  in  Venice,  1488.  The  Aldine 
editions  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  classics  (many  of  them 
editiones  principes)  are  still  highly  prized  for  correctness 
and  beauty.  Before  the  year  150x3  there  appeared  over 
eight  thousand  books  in  Italy,  more  than  one  third  of  them 
(nearly  three  thousand)  in  Venice.  They  included  most  of 
the  Latin  authors,  with  or  without  commentaries,  the  works 
of  Dante,  Petrarca,  Boccaccio,  Filelfo,  Bruni,  Valla,  and 
other  humanists,  and  of  Christian  fathers,  as  Lactantius, 
Augustin,  and  Jerome.  The  first  Greek  book,  the  grammar 
of  Constantine  Laskaris,  was  printed  at  Milan,  1476  (1477), 
and  reprinted  at  Venice,  1494 ;  then  followed  the  lexicon  of 
Crastone,  1478.  The  first  ancient  Greek  work  printed  was 
^Esop's  Fables,  with  a  translation,  between  1476  and 
1480,  at  Milan.  Homer's  works  appeared  at  Florence,  in 
1488 ;  Aristotle  at  Venice,  1495.  The  Latin  Bible  was 
printed  repeatedly,  in  whole  or  in  part  ;  also  several  editions 
of  the  German  Bible  ;  but  it  was  not  till  1516  that  the  first 


The  A  rt  of  Printing,  \  \  3 

edition  of  the  Greek  Testament  was  published,  and  then  in 
the  Swiss  city  of  Basel,  not  in  Italy.  The  Italian  humanists 
had  not  sufficient  interest  in  the  Bible. 


NOTES. 

It  is  estimated  that,  before  the  year  1500,  there  were  in  existence  forty-two 
printing-presses,  in  as  many  cities,  at  which  at  least  16,000  volumes  were 
printed.  Placing  the  average  edition  of  those  days  at  500  copies,  the  total 
number  of  copies  would  be  over  8,000,000.  The  copies  still  extant  are 
comparatively  few.  They  are  called  incunabula,  or  cradle-books. 

The  Vatican  Library  has  probably  the  richest  collection  of  the  first  printed 
works.  I  examined  there  a  most  beautifully  written  descriptive  Catalogue 
Codicum  Saculo  XV.,  impressorum  qui  in  Bibliotheca  Vaticana  Roma;  adser- 
vantur,  by  Aloys.  Zappelli,  Presby.  et  Scriptor  Latinus,  begun  1853,  finished 
1868,  in  3  large  vols.  fol.  The  first  work  mentioned  is  Durandi  Guil. 
Rationale  Divinorum  Officiorum,  Moguntise,  1459  ;  the  second,  Biblia  Mo- 
guntina,  1462,  2  vols.,  Mogunt.,  1465.  Then  follow  Ciceronis  Officia,  Mo- 
gunt.,  1465;  Lactantii  Divin.  Institutionum  libri  VII.;  Bonifadi  VIII. 
Liber  Sextus  Decretalium,  Mogunt.,  1465  ;  Augustini  De  Civitate  Dei  libri 
XXII.,  sine  loco,  1467  ;  Ciceronis  Epistolce  Familiares,  Rom.,  1467  ;  dementis 
V.  Constitutiones,  Mogunt.,  1467  ;  Augustini  Opuscula  varia,  Mogunt.,  1467; 
Meditationes  Vita  et  Passionis  D.  N.  Jesu  Ckristi,  Augustas,  1468  ;  Jusliniani 
Imperaloris  Institutionum  libri  IV.,  Mogunt.,  1468;  Hieronymi  Presb. 
Traclatus  et  Epistola,  Rom.,  1468;  Lactantii  Div.  Instit.,  etc.,  Rom.,  1468; 
Augustini  De  Civitate  Dei,  Rom.,  1468  ;  Apuleji  Metamorphoseos  libri  XI., 
Rom.,  1469  ;  Gellii  Auli  Noctes  Attics,  Rom.,  1469  ;  Bessarionis  Card.  Sabini, 
Adversus  calumniatorem  Platonis  libri  V.,  Rom.,  sine  anno  (against  Georgius 
Trapezuntius) ;  Livii  Titi  Historiarum  Romanarum  Decades  III.,  Rom.,  sine 
anno;  Ciceronis  Epistola  Fam.,  Venetiis,  1469;  Lucani  Pharsalia,  Rom., 
1469,  etc.,  etc. 

This  catalogue  may  be  regarded  as  a  fair  specimen  of  the  taste  of  that  age, 
and  the  value  set  upon  books.  From  the  indexes  at  the  close  of  the  third  vol- 
ume, it  would  appear  that  the  favorite  authors,  during  the  first  half  century  of 
typography,  were,  among  the  ancient  classics  :  Cicero,  Virgil,  Horace,  Ovid, 
Livy,  Tacitus,  Pliny,  Aristotle,  and  Plutarch  ;  among  the  Christian  fathers 
and  mediaeval  divines  :  Augustin  (De  Civit.  Dei),  Lactantius  (Inst.  div.),  Jer- 
ome, Gregory  I.,  Chrysostom  (Homilies),  Eusebius  (Church  History  and  Chron- 
icle), Thomas  Aquinas  ( Summa  Theol.),  Nicolaus  de  Lyra  (Glossa),  Gratian 
(Decretum),  Durandus  (Rationale  Offic.),  Jac.  Voragine  (Legenda  Aurea) ; 
among  the  humanists :  Poggio,  Filelfo,  Valla  (De  Eleg.  Lat.  ling.),  ^Eneas 
Sylvius  (Pius  II.),  Leonard.  Aretinus,  Theod.  Gaza,  Georgius  Trapezuntius  ;  oi 
Italian  authors  :  Petrarca,  Boccaccio,  Dante,  and  Savonarola. 

The  Union  Theological  Seminary  in  New  York  has  probably  the  largest 
lection  of  incunabula  in  America,  namely,  four  hundred  and  thirty  titles  pn, 
between  A.D.  1460  and  1510.  They  are  a  part  of  the  Leander  van  E  uy. 

13 


114  The  Renaissance. 

which  originally  belonged  to  the  Benedictine  monastery  of  Marienwerder,  in 
the  diocese  of  Paderborn  (one  of  the  bishoprics  founded  by  Charlemagne  after  his 
Saxon  conquests),  and  began  to  be  collected  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation. 
After  the  confiscation  of  the  monastery,  in  1803,  it  came  into  the  hands  of  the 
librarian,  the  priest  Leander  van  Ess,  Dr.  of  theology  and  of  the  canon  law 
(d.  Oct.  13,  1847),  and  numbered,  with  his  additions,  6,000  separate  works,  in 
13,000  volumes.  It  was  offered  for  sale  ten  years  before  his  death  for  the  sum 
of  11,000  florins,  and  bought,  at  the  suggestion  of  Dr.  Edward  Robinson,  by 
the  directors  of  the  Seminary  in  1837.  See  the  Schaff-Herzog  Encyclopedia,  I., 
760,  and  especially  the  account  by  Prof.  T.  F.  Crane,  of  Cornell  University,  in 
Dr.  Prentiss'  work,  The  Union  Theol.  Seminary  in  the  City  of  New  York,  etc.. 
New  York  (Anson  D.  F.  Randolph  &  Co.),  1889,  pp.  101-107.  Among  the 
incunabula  of  this  invaluable  library  are  the  following  works,  printed  at  Cologne, 
Nttrnberg,  Basel,  Leipzig,  Mainz,  Venice  : 

^Egidius,  Commentaries  on  Aristotle,  1482  and  1488  ;  Albertus  Magnus, 
Compendium,  printed  at  Ulm,  without  date,  and  a  volume  of  his  Sermones. 
Albert  of  Padua,  Sermones,  in  the  edition  of  1480  ;  Petrarca,  De  Vita  Solitaria, 
1496.  Twenty-one  titles  of  Anselm,  published  before  1500  ;  four  of  Aristotle, 
sixteen  of  Augustin,  sixteen  of  Bonaventura,  five  editions  of  the  Rationale  of 
Durandus,  all  previous  to  1500  ;  the  Etymologies  of  Isidore,  of  Seville,  1483  ; 
Thomas  a  Kempis'  Imitation  of  Christ,  in  the  edition  of  1487  ;  five  editions  of 
the  Sentences  of  Peter  the  Lombard,  four  of  which  appeared  in  four  consecutive 
years,  beginning  with  1486,  at  Basel ;  Ludolph's  Vita  Christi,  three  editions, 
beginning  with  1474  ;  Lyra's  Postilla,  1477  ;  and  another  early  copy  without 
date.  Sc^la  Cceli,  1480  ;  Speculum  Exemplorum,  1485.  Jacobus  de  Voragine, 
thirteen  entries  in  the  list.  Of  Bibles,  Testaments,  missals,  breviaries,  and 
works  on  theology  there  are  too  many  to  mention.  There  are  eight  Latin 
Bibles  before  1500,  the  fourth  and  ninth  German  Bibles,  1470  and  1483  ;  the 
first  Low-Dutch  Bible  of  1480,  the  Greek  Bible  of  1526,  and  the  first  and  sec- 
ond editions  of  the  Hebrew  Bible  of  1518  and  1521.  Koburger's  fourth  Latin 
Bible,  of  1478,  is  one  of  the  most  clearly  printed  books  now  in  the  Library. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

THE   REVIVAL   OF   LETTERS   IN   GERMANY. 

I.  K.  Hagen  :  Deutschlands  literarische  und  religiose  Verhaltnisse  im  Kef  or- 
mations-Zeitalter,    Erlangen,   i84i-'44  3  vols.,  2d  ed.,  Frankfurt,  1868.— Job. 
Janssen  :    Geschichte  des  deutschen  Volkes  beim  Ausgang  des  Mittalters,  Freiburg, 
i.  B.,  1876  sqq.,  the  1st  vol.,  gth  ed.,  1883,  pp.  55-135.     Comp.  his  alphab.  list 
of  books  XXVII. — XLIV. — A.   Horawitz  :  Zur  Geschichte  des  deutschen  Hu- 
manismus  und der  deutschen  Historiographie,  Hannover,   1875. — Ch.   Schmidt: 
Histoire  litteraire  de  T Alsace  a  la  fin  du  XVI.    siecle,    Paris,    1879,  2  vols. — 
L.   Geiger  :  Renaissance  u.    Humanismus   in  Italien  u.  Deutschland,   Berlin, 
1882,  pp.  323-580. 

II.  Monographs  by  Kampschulte  on  the  University  of  Erfurt  (1860) ;  Spach 
on  Brant  and  Murner  (1866);    Strauss  on  Ulrich  von  Hutten  (1858,  4th  ed. 
1876) ;  Ulmann  on  Franz  von  Sickingen  (1876) ;  Horawitz  on  Beatus  Rhenanus 
(1872);    Plitt  on   Truttvetter  (1876);    Binder  on  Charitas  Pirkheimer  (1878); 
Krause    on    Eoban  Hesse,  or  Hessus   (1879,    2  vols.)  ;  Hartfelder  on  Celtes 
(1881)  ;  Schneegans  on  Abt  Trithemius  (1882) ;  Drews  on  Pirkheimer  (1887) ; 
Fritzsche  on  Glareanus  (1890) ;  Reindell  on  Luther,  Crotus,  and  Hutten  (1890). 
On  Ulrich  von  Hutten,  see  Schaff,  Church  Hist.,  Vol.  VI.,  196  sqq.  ;  on  Pirkhei- 
mer, ibid. ,  434  sqq.  ;  on  Reuchlin  and  Erasmus,  the  lit.  in  the  next  two  sections. 

The  humanistic  culture  of  Italy  prepared  for  the  ruder 
but  more  vigorous  nations  of  the  North  the  possibilities  of 
great  intellectual  and  moral  achievements.  It  served  the 
same  purpose  as  the  old  classical  literature. 

The  Italians  looked  down  upon  the  northern  nations  as 
barbarians,  and  despised  them  for  their  ignorance,  rudeness, 
and  intemperance  in  eating  and  drinking.  They  were  far 
superior  to  them  in  temperance,  urbanity,  and  refinement, 
but  inferior  in  physical  and  moral  energy.  When  ^neas 
Sylvius,  the  first  apostle  of  humanism  in  Germany,  lived  at 
the  court  of  the  dull  and  phlegmatic  Emperor  Frederick  III. 
(who  ruled  from  1440  to  1492),  he  found  that  the  German 
princes  and  nobles  cared  more  for  horses  and  dogs  than  poets 

"5 


1 1 6  The  Renaissance. 

and  scholars,  and  loved  their  wine  cellars  better  than  the 
muses ;  while  the  professors  of  the  universities  were  lost  in 
a  labyrinth  of  barren  scholasticism.  Campanus,  a  witty 
poet  of  the  papal  court,  who  was  sent  as  legate  to  the  Diet 
of  Regensburg  by  Paul  II.,  and  made  Bishop  of  Teramo  by 
Pius  II.,  abuses  Germany  for  its  filth,  cold  climate,  pov- 
erty, sour  wine,  and  miserable  fare  ;  he  laments  his  unhappy 
nose  which  had  to  smell  every  thing,  and  praised  his  ears 
which  understood  nothing. 

J3ut  in  less  than  a  generation  there  arose  scholars  in  Ger- 
many and  Holland  equal  in  learning  and  influence  to  those 
of  Italy.  The  Germans  learned  humanism  from  Italy,  but 
they  invented  the  printing-press,  which  gave  wings  to  litera- 
ture, and  they  produced  the  Reformation,  which  opened  the 
modern  era  of  history. 

Humanism  in  Germany  may  be  dated  from  the  invention 
of  the  printing-press ;  but  its  flourishing  period  did  not 
begin  till  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  lasted  only 
till  about  1520,  when  it  was  absorbed  by  the  more  popular 
and  powerful  religious  movement  of  the  Reformation,  as 
Italian  humanism  was  superseded  by  the  papal  counter- 
Reformation. 

The  chief  impulse  came  from  Italy.  The  patronage 
of  the  popes,  who  stood  in  correspondence  with  all  the 
bishops  and  princes  of  Christendom,  promoted  and  sanc- 
tioned the  revival  of  classical  learning  and  art.  Young 
scholars  and  artists  travelled  to  Venice,  Florence,  and  Rome, 
and  caught  the  inspiration  of  the  new  era.  An  enthusiasm 
for  the  study  of  the  ancient  languages  and  literature  was 
kindled  not  only  among  the  Latin  races  in  France,  Spain, 
Portugal,  but  also  in  Germany,  Holland,  Hungary,  and 
Poland. 

The  revival  of  classical  antiquity  prepared  the  way  for  a 
revival  of  primitive  Christianity  from  the  fountain  of  the 
Greek  Testament.  This  was  the  case  in  Germany,  where 
humanism  entered  into  the  service  of  religious  progress. 
Luther  availed  himself  of  the  aid  of  Ulrich  von  Hutten  and 
Erasmus  in  opposing  existing  abuses,  but  went  far  deeper 


The  Revival  of  Letters  in  Germany.  \  \  7 

into  the  spirit  of  the  gospel,  which  was  his  moving  power. 
Melanchthon  utilized  Greek  scholarship  for  the  advance  of 
biblical  theology.  Zwingli  and  GEcolampadius  did  the 
same  in  Switzerland.  Humanism  took  its  inspiration  from 
the  classics,  the  Reformation  from  the  New  Testament. 
The  supremacy  of  literature  gave  way  to  the  supremacy  of 
religion.1 

The  University  of  Erfurt,  where  Luther  studied,  was  the 
principal  seat  of  humanism  in  Germany.  Heidelberg,  Frei- 
burg, Tubingen,  Vienna,  followed.  In  German  Switzerland, 
the  University  of  Basel,  founded  by  the  humanistic  Pope 
Pius  II.  in  1460,  was  the  centre  of  progressive  learning 
through  the  residence  of  Erasmus,  Glareanus,  Amerbach 
(John  and  his  three  sons,  Basilius,  Bruno,  and  Bonifacius), 
and  the  enterprising  publisher  Frobenius.  The  flourishing 
classical  school  of  Schlettstadt  in  Alsace  should  also  be 
mentioned.  The  cities  of  Strassburg,  Niirnberg,  Augsburg, 
and  Basel  had  the  most  prosperous  printing  establishments. 
Among  the  few  princely  patrons  of  scholars  must  be  men- 
tioned the  Emperor  Maximilian  I.  (1459-1519),  Frederick 
the  Wise  of  Saxony  (1463-1525),  and  Archbishop  Albrecht 
of  Mainz  (1490-1545). 

The  leaders  of  the  new  learning  were  Rudolph  Agricola 
(1443-1485),  John  Reuchlin  (i455~i522)>  Erasmus  (1466- 
1536),  Ulrich  von  Hutten  (1488-1523),  Jakob  Wimpheling 
(1450-1528),  Sebastian  Brant  (i4$7-l$2l)>  Thomas  Murner 
(1475-1537),  Bernhard  Adelmann  (1457-1 523),  Conrad  Celtes 
(1459-1508),  lodocus  Truttvetter,  the  teacher  of  Luther 
(1460-1519),  Ulrich  Zasius  (1461-1535),  Joh.  Trithemius 
(1462-1516),  Conrad  Peutinger  (1465-1547),  Hermann  von 
Busch  (1468-1534),  Willibald  Pirkheimer  (1470-1528),  and 
his  highly  gifted  sister  Charitas  (1464-1532),  Conrad  Muti- 
anus  Rufus  (1471-1526),  Heinrich  Bebel  (1472-1518),  Joh. 

1  Voigt  (II.  317):  "Der  deutsche  Humanismus  und  dtr  italienischt  haben 
vieles  gemeinsam,  aber  in  einem  Punkte  -weichen  tie  auffdllig  aus  cinandcr  :  die 
Frucht  der  klassischtn  Studien  -war  in  Italien  ein  religioser  Indiferentismus ,  ja 
tin  heimlicher  Krieg  der  Unglaubigkeil  gegen  Glauben  und  Kir c he  ;  in  Deuttch- 
landdagegen  er-weckten  sie  gerade  tine  neue  Regsamkeit  auf  den  Gebuten 
Theologie  und  des  kirchlicJun  Lebens" 


n8  The  Renaissance. 

Cuspinianus  (1473-1529),  Joh.  Aventinus  (1477-1534),  Cro- 
tus  Rubeanus  (1480-1540),  Georg  Spalatin  (1484-1545),  Joa- 
chim Vadianus  (1484-1551),  Beatus  Rhenanus  (1485-1547), 
Glareanus  or  Loriti  of  Glarus  (1488-1563),  Eoban  Hesse  or 
Hessus  (1488-1540),  Bonifacius  Amerbach  (1495-1562).  All 
these  scholars  were  Germans,  except  Vadianus,  Amerbach, 
and  Glareanus,  who  were  German  Swiss,  and  Erasmus,  the 
most  eminent  of  them,  who  was  a  Dutchman  by  birth,  but  a 
cosmopolitan  in  spirit,  and  lived  mostly  in  Basel. 

The  German  humanists  were  less  brilliant  and  elegant,  but 
on  the  whole  more  serious  and  religious  than  their  Italian 
predecessors  and  contemporaries,  if  we  except  Ulrich  von 
Hutten  and  Celtes  (the  erotic  poet),  who  equalled  them  in 
frivolity  and  licentiousness.  Their  reign  was  limited  to  a 
brief  period  of  about  thirty  years. 

The  humanists  spoke  and  wrote  mostly  in  a  foreign  language 
which  was  intelligible  only  to  scholars.  Luther  roused  the 
heart  and  conscience  of  the  people  in  their  vernacular  tongue. 
His  German  Bible,  German  sermons,  and  German  hymns 
were  far  more  effective  than  all  the  Latin  orations,  epistles, 
and  poems  of  the  humanists.  For  a  while  the  cause  of  learn- 
ing suffered,  and  the  fears  of  Erasmus  were  realized  ;  but, 
after  the  lapse  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  Protestant 
history,  humanism  and  a  refined  paganism  were  revived  under 
a  higher  and  more  permanent  form  in  the  classical  litera- 
ture of  Germany.  Klopstock,  Lessing,  Herder,  Schiller,  and 
Goethe  were  Protestants  as  to  freedom  of  thought,  and 
champions  of  modern  culture. 

And  yet  humanism  was  a  necessary  preparatory  school  for 
the  Reformation.  Luther  and  Melanchthon,  Zwingli  and 
CEcolampadius,  Calvin  and  Beza  could  never  have  done 
their  work  without  a  good  knowledge  of  the  languages  of 
the  Bible,  which  they  obtained  from  the  humanists. 

Reuchlin  and  Erasmus  were  the  pathfinders  of  biblical 
learning,  the  venerabiles  inceptores  of  Protestant  research. 
They  remained  and  died  in  the  Roman  Church,  in  which 
they  were  born  ;  but  they  undermined  its  influence  by  attack- 
ing its  prevailing  abuses  and  superstitions,  and  prepared  am- 


The  Revival  of  Letters  in  Germany.  1 19 

munition  for  the  battles  of  the  Reformers.  Both  were  equally 
necessary,  Reuchlin  first,  with  his  mystic  vein  and  enthu- 
siasm for  Oriental  wisdom,  Erasmus  next,  with  his  ironic 
and  rationalistic  genius  and  enthusiasm  for  Hellenic  learning. 
Ulrich  von  Hutten  called  them  "  the  two  eyes  of  Germany." 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

JOHN   REUCHLIN  AND   HEBREW   LEARNING. 

Reuchlin's  Brief  wee  hsel.     Ed.  by  L.  Geiger,  Tubingen,  1875. 

Monographs  on  Reuchlin  by  Mayerhof,  Berlin,  1830  ;  Lamey,  Pforzheim, 
1855  ;  L.  Geiger,  Leipzig,  1871  (comp.  his  Renaissance,  p.  504  sgg.) ;  Hora- 
witz,  Wien,  1877.  See  also  Klvipfel  in  Herzog*,  xii.,  pp.  715-724. 

On  Reuchlin's  conflict  with  the  Dominicans  of  Cologne  and  Hutten's  part  in 
it,  see  D.  F.  Strauss,  Ulrich  vcm  Hutten,  4th  ed.  (1878),  pp.  132-164  ;  and 
Booking  in  Hutteni  Operum  Supplem.,  Tom.  II.,  55-156. 

John  Reuchlin  (1455-1522)  or  Capnion,1  called  "the 
Phenix  of  Germany,"  was  born  in  Pforzheim  in  the  Palati- 
nate, studied  at  Schlettstadt,  Freiburg,  Paris,  Basel,  Orleans, 
Florence,  and  Rome.  He  learned  Greek  from  native  Greeks, 
Hebrew  from  John  Wessel  and  from  Jewish  rabbis  in  Ger- 
many and  Italy.  He  bought  many  Hebrew  and  rabbinical 
books,  and  marked  the  time  and  place  to  remind  him  of  the 
happiness  of  their  first  acquaintance.  He  was  a  lawyer  by 
profession,  practised  law  in  Stuttgart,  and  always  called 
himself  Legum  Doctor  ;  but  in  later  years  he  delivered  lec- 
tures on  Greek  and  Hebrew  in  the  universities  of  Heidelberg, 
Ingolstadt,  and  Tubingen.  In  Ingolstadt  he  had  a  salary 
of  200  guilders  as  professor,  and  lectured  in  the  largest 
hall  before  300  students.  He  recommended  Melanchthon, 
his  grand-nephew,  as  professor  of  Greek  in  the  University  of 
Wittenberg,  and  thus  unconsciously  secured  him  for  the 
Reformation.  He  revered,  as  he  said,  St.  Jerome  as  an 
angel,  he  honored  Nicolaus  Lyra  as  a  teacher;  but  he 
worshipped  truth  alone  as  divine. 

Reuchlin  was  at  home  in  almost  all  the  branches  of  the 

'From  •H.ditviov  (i.e.,  little  smoke),  the  Greek  equivalent  for  Reuchlin  (the 
diminutive  of  Rauch,  smoke).  Hermolaus  Barbarus  thus  hellenized  him. 

120 


John  Reuchlin  and  Hebrew  Learning.  121 

learning  of  his  age,  but  especially  in  Greek  and  Hebrew. 
He  wrote  a  Latin  dictionary  and  a  Greek  grammar.  He  was 
the  pioneer  of  Hebrew  learning  among  Christians,  at  least 
in  Germany,  and  furnished  the  key  to  the  understanding  of 
the  Old  Testament. 

In  1506  he  published  his  Hebrew  grammar  and  dictionary, 
which  became  a  text-book  for  Christian  scholars.1  The  print- 
ing of  Hebrew  books  had  begun  in  Italy  in  1475.  A  chair 
for  Hebrew  was  founded  at  Bologna  in  1488,  and  another  at 
Rome  in  1514.  Hebrew  manuscripts  were  collected  and 
became  a  valued  treasure  in  large  libraries.  But  very  few 
could  make  use  of  them  at  that  time. 

Reuchlin  studied  also  the  philosophy  of  the  Greeks,  the 
Neo-Platonic  and  Pythagorean  mysticism,  and  the  Jewish 
Cabbala,  and  found  in  them  a  well  of  hidden  wisdom.  He 
acknowledged  in  this  rare  branch  of  learning  his  gratitude  to 
Giovanni  Pico  della  Mirandola,  whom  he  called  "  the  wise 
count,"  and  "  the  greatest  scholar  of  the  age."  He  pub- 
lished the  results  of  his  studies  in  two  works — one  De  Verbo 
mirifico,  which  appeared  at  Basel  in  1494,  and  passed  through 
eight  editions ;  and  one  De  Arte  Cabbalistica,  printed  in 
1517.  "  The  wonder-working  word  "  is  the  tetragrammaton 
IHVH  (fYliT),  the  unpronounceable  name  for  God,  which 
is  worshipped  by  the  celestials,  feared  by  the  infernals, 
and  kissed  by  the  soul  of  the  universe.  The  name  Jesu 
(Ihsvh)  is  only  an  enlargement  of  Ihvh  by  the  letter  s.  The 
Jehovah-  and  Jesus-name  is  the  connecting  link  between 
God  and  man,  the  infinite  and  the  finite.  Thus  the  mystic 
tradition  of  the  Jews  is  a  confirmation  of  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity  and  the  Divinity  of  Christ.  Reuchlin 
saw  in  every  name,  in  every  letter,  in  every  number  of  the 
Old  Testament  a  profound  meaning.  In  the  three  letters 

1  Rttdimenta  lingua;  Hebraica.  It  is  based  upon  David  Kimchi,  but  is  the 
first  Hebrew  grammar  written  by  a  Christian.  He  proudly  concluded  the  work 
with  the  words  of  Horace  :  "Stat  [Exegi]  monumentum  are perennius."  He  in- 
troduced many  technical  terms  which  are  still  in  use.  He  also  explained  the 
difficult  theory  of  Hebrew  accentuation,  in  De  accenlibus  et  orthographia  lingua 
Hebraic*,  1518.  Comp.  Geiger,  Das  Studium  der  hebrdischen  Sprache  in 
Deutschlandvom  Ende  des  i$ten  bis  zur  Mitte  des  itten  Jahrh.,  Breslau,  1870, 


122  The  Renaissance. 

of  the  creative  word  bara,  Gen.  i  :  i,  he  found  the  mystery 
of  the  Trinity ;  in  one  verse  of  Exodus,  seventy-two  inex- 
pressible names  of  God;  in  Prov.  30:  31,  a  prophecy  that 
Frederick  the  Wise,  of  Saxony,  shall  become  emperor 
of  Germany  after  the  death  of  Maximilian  (which  was  not 
fulfilled). 

We  may  smile  at  these  fantastic  vagaries  ;  but  they  stimu- 
lated and  deepened  the  zeal  for  the  hidden  wisdom  of  the 
Orient,  which  he  called  forth  from  the  grave. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

THE    SEMITIC   CONTROVERSY.      A  PRELUDE  TO  THE  REFOR- 

MATION. 

Reuchlin's  interest  in  the  Jews  and  in  rabbinical  litera- 
ture involved  him  in  a  controversy  with  the  monks,  which 
spread  over  all  Europe.  It  was  a  Culturkampf,  or  a  conflict 
of  progressive  culture  with  mediaeval  obscurantism  and  anti- 
Semitic  fanaticism.  It  was  a  prelude  to  the  Theses-contro- 
versy of  Luther.  But  in  this  case  the  attack  came  from  the 
monks,  and  Reuchlin  was  on  the  defensive. 

John  Pfefferkorn,  a  baptized  Jew  of  Cologne  (1469-1522), 
proved  his  zeal  for  the  Christian  faith  by  a  series  of  bitter 
attacks  upon  his  former  co-religionists.1  He  secured  from 
the  Emperor  Maximilian  I.,  in  1509,  permission  to  burn  all 
the  rabbinical  writings  on  account  of  their  blasphemies  against 
Christ.  The  execution  was  opposed  by  the  Archbishop  of 
Mayence.  Several  universities,  Reuchlin,  and  Jakob  von 
Hoogstraten  or  Hochstraten,  papal  Inquisitor  at  Cologne 
(1460-1527),  were  consulted.  Cologne,  Mayence,  and  Hoog- 
straten advised  the  burning,  Erfurt  and  Heidelberg,  sug- 
gested further  investigation,  Reuchlin,  in  a  clear,  discrimi- 
nating, wise,  and  tolerant  judgment,  decided  against  burning.* 
He  wished  to  preserve,  besides  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  which 
were  exempt  from  burning  as  a  matter  of  course,  the  Tal- 
mud, the  Cabbala,  the  biblical  glosses  and  commentaries,  the 
prayer  and  hymn  books,  and  all  philosophical  and  secular 
writings,  of  the  Jews  ;  but  the  Nizahon  and  the  Toledoth 

'In  books  entitled  :   Judenspiegel  ;  Judenbeichte  ;  Osternbuch  ;  Judenfeind, 


-. 

•  "Rathschlag,  ob  man  den  Juden  alle  ihre  Bticher  nehmtn,  ablhun  und  ver- 
brennen  soil"  Stuttgart,  Nov.  6,  1510. 

123 


124  The  Renaissance. 

Jeshu  might,  after  due  examination  and  legal  decision,  be 
destroyed,  because  they  contained  blasphemies  against 
Christ,  his  mother,  and  the  apostles.  In  conclusion  he  ad- 
vises the  emperor  to  order  every  university  in  Germany  to 
establish  two  chairs  of  Hebrew  for  ten  years. 

Pfefferkorn  attacked  him  violently  in  his  Handspiegel 
(Hand  Mirror),  which  he  industriously  sold,  with  the  help 
of  his  wife,  at  the  fair  in  Frankfurt,  1511.'  Reuchlin  an- 
swered in  his  Augenspiegel  (Spectacles)  in  the  same  year. 
Pfefferkorn  appeared  again  on  the  arena  with  his  Brandspie- 
gel  (Burning  Glass),  and  secured  an  imperial  mandate  to  the 
magistrate  of  Frankfurt  to  prevent  the  sale  of  the  Augenspie- 
gel. Reuchlin  took  up  the  pen  in  self-defence  (1513),  and, 
forgetting  his  dignity,  called  his  calumniators  "  biting  dogs," 
"  raving  wolves,"  "  foxes,"  "  hogs,"  "  horses,"  and  "  asses," 
and  "  children  of  the  devil."  Erasmus  and  Pirkheimer  thought 
that  he  ought  not  to  have  immortalized  such  a  monster  as 
Pfefferkorn,  or  to  have  done  it  with  more  moderation. 

The  theological  faculty  of  Cologne,  which  consisted  mostly 
of  Dominicans,  sided  with  the  anti-Jewish  intolerance,  and 
denounced  forty-three  sentences  of  Reuchlin  as  heretical 
(1513).  The  Paris  University  likewise  condemned  him 
(1514).  He  was  cited  before  the  tribunal  of  the  Inquisition 
by  Hoogstraten,  but  he  appealed  to  the  pope.  Hoogstraten 
had  the  satisfaction  to  see  the  Augenspiegel  publicly  burnt 
at  Cologne,  February  10,  1514,  as  a  book  that  smacked  of 
heresy,  was  friendly  to  the  Jews,  irreverent  to  the  holy 
doctrine  of  the  Church,  and  scandalous. 

When  Pope  Leo  X.  received  the  appeal,  he  appointed  a 
commission  at  Speier.  This  commission  cleared  Reuchlin  of 
the  charge  of  heresy,  and  condemned  Hoogstraten  to  silence 
and  the  payment  of  the  costs,  amounting  to  1 1 1  guilders 
of  Rhenish  gold  (April  24,  1514).  But  the  indomitable 
Hoogstraten,  well  provided  with  money,  proceeded  to  Rome, 
and  through  the  influence  of  Sylvester  Prierias,  the  Master 

1  He  called  Reuchlin  a  Judengonner,  Ohrenblaser,  Stubenstencker,  Beutelfe- 
ger,  Hinterschiitzen,  Seitenstecher,  etc.,  and  charged  him  with  having  taken 
bribes  from  the  Jews. 


The  Semitic  Controversy.  125 

of  the  Sacred  Palace  (who  came  out  in  1517  as  a  champion 
against  Luther),  he  secured,  after  a  long  delay,  a  papal  an- 
nullation  of  the  Speier  decision  and  a  condemnation  of 
Reuchlin  to  the  payment  of  costs  and  to  eternal  silence 
(June  23,  1520). 

Reuchlin  appealed  a  papa  male  informato  ad papam  melius 
informandum  without  success,  but  was  left  undisturbed.  He 
had  too  much  respect  for  the  Church  and  the  papacy,  and  was 
too  old  to  rebel.  He  showed  no  sympathy  with  the  Refor- 
mation, which  in  the  meantime  had  broken  out  at  Witten- 
berg. He  even  turned  away  from  Melanchthon,  his  grand- 
nephew,  to  whom  he  had  already  bequeathed  his  library, 
and  cancelled  the  bequest.  He  prevented,  however,  Dr. 
Eck,  during  his  brief  sojourn  at  Ingolstadt,  from  burning 
the  writings  of  Luther.  He  closed  his  labors  as  professor  of 
Greek  and  Hebrew  in  the  University  of  Tubingen,  and  died 
at  Stuttgart,  June  30,  1522,  at  the  age  of  sixty-seven  years 
and  four  months. 

By  the  papal  decision  of  1520  the  obscurantism  of  the 
Dominicans  had  obtained  a  temporary  triumph ;  but  in  the 
meantime  the  spirit  of  reform  had  already  seized  the  helm 
of  progress.  This  is  evident  from  the  large  number  of 
pamphlets  and  letters  in  favor  of  Reuchlin  which  appeared 
between  1509  and  1522  on  this  controversy.  He  prepared  a 
collection  of  testimonies  of  Erasmus,  Hutten,  Mutian,  Peu- 
tinger,  Pirkheimer,  Busch,  Vadian,  Glarean,  Melanchthon, 
CEcolampadius,  Hedio,  etc.,  in  all  forty-three  names  of 
eminent  scholars  who  were  classed  as  Reuchlinists.1 

1  Clarorum  [in  the  second  edition,  Illustrium]  Virorum—Epistola  hebraica, 
gracce  et  latins  ad  lo,  Reuchlinum,  etc.,  1514  ;  new  ed.  1519. 


CHAPTER   XXIX. 

THE   EPISTLES   OF    OBSCURE    MEN,   AND   THE   TRIUMPH    OF 

REUCHLIN. 

Among  the  writings  of  the  Reuchlinists  against  the  oppo- 
nents of  the  new  learning,  the  Epistol<z  Virorum  Obscurorum 
( Dunkelmanner )  occupy  the  most  prominent  place. 

These  Epistles  are  a  fictitious  correspondence  of  Domini- 
can monks  who  expose  their  own  old-fogyism,  ignorance,  and 
vulgarity  to  public  ridicule  in  their  barbarous  German-Latin 
jargon,  which  is  called  Kitchen-Latin  (Kuchenlatein),  and 
which  admits  of  no  adequate  translation.  The  epistles  are 
full  of  wrath  against  Reuchlin,  ("  who  in  Hebrew  is  called 
Capnio !  ")  and  his  sympathizers.  They  appeared  anony- 
mously, but  were  chiefly  written  by  Ulrich  von  Hutteii  and 
Crotus  Rubeanus  (Johannes  Jager).1 

The  imitation  was  so  clever  that  some  Dominican  monks 
at  first  believed  the  epistles  to  be  genuine,  and  excused  the 
offensive  Latin  by  the  form  of  the  thoughts.  So  Erasmus 
reports.  The  authors  were  friends  of  Luther,  but  Crotus 
afterwards  fell  out  with  the  Reformation,  like  Erasmus  and 
other  humanists. 

1  The  first  series  was  printed  at  Hagenau  (in  Alsace),  1515,  the  second  (IK 
opposition  to  Pfefferkorn's  Defensio)  at  Basel,  1517.  Modern  ed.  by  Munch, 
Lips.,  1827,  and  the  best  by  Bocking  in  the  6th  and  7th  vols.  of  his  Opera 
Jfutteni  (Lips. ,  1869).  Bocking  gives  also  a  historico-philclogical  commentary 
and  the  Defensio  of  Pfefferkorn.  A  German  translation  by  Dr.  Wilhelm 
Binder :  Briefe  von  Dunkelmannern  an  Magister  Grauus  aus  Deventer, 
Professor  der  schonen  Wissenschaften  in  Coin,  Stuttgart,  1876.  For  a  good 
analysis,  see  Hagen,  I.e.,  I.,  440  sqq.;  Strauss,  I.e.,  165  sqq.f-  and  Geiger,  p.  $i& 
sqq.  It  is  impossible  to  appreciate  the  humor  and  irony  of  these  Epistles  without 
a  knowledge  of  German.  Strauss  does  them  too  much  honor  when  he  compares 
them  to  Don  Quixote.  The  language  reminds  me  of  the  German-English  jargon 

126 


The  Epistles  of  Obscure  Men.  127 

About  tfie  same  time  appeared  "  The  Triumph  of  Dr. 
Reuchlin,"  a  poem  with  a  curious  woodcut,  which  represents 
Reuchlin's  triumphal  procession  on  his  return  to  his  native 
Pforzheim,  and  his  victory  over  Hoogstraten  and  Pfefferkorn 
with  their  four  idols  of  superstition,  barbarism,  ignorance, 
and  envy.1 

Erasmus,  who  knew  no  Hebrew  and  cared  still  less  for 
rabbinical  literature,  showed  nevertheless  his  sympathy  for 
the  persecuted  Hebrew  scholar  after  his  death,  in  a  vision 
entitled  Apotheosis  Reuchlini  Capnionis,  where  Reuchlin  is 
welcomed  by  St.  Jerome  in  heaven  and  enrolled,  without 
leave  of  the  pope,  in  the  number  of  saints,  as  patron  of 
philology. 

Such  sensational  pamphlets  and  caricatures  prepared  the 
way  for  the  more  serious  and  effective  warfare  of  Luther, 
who  had  just  then  begun  to  absorb  the  attention  of  Christen- 
dom by  the  controversy  against  the  papal  indulgences  as 
carried  on  by  a  Dominican  monk  and  charlatan. 

of  the  ballads  of  Hans  Breitmann.  The  names  of  the  correspondents  and  their 
friends  are  ludicrous,  as  Langsc hneider,  Dollkopf,  Hafenmus,  Scheerschleifer, 
Federleser,  Federfuchser,  Kannegiesser ,  Kachelofen,  Kalb,  Loffelholz,  Kuckuck, 
Schaafmaul,  Schweinfurth,  Wurst.  The  definite  article  is  rendered  by  hie, 
the  indefinite  by  unus  ;  every  sentence  is  thought  in  German,  and  literally  turned 
or  upset  into  outlandish  Latin.  The  amorous  propensities  of  the  pious  monks 
are  not  spared.  The  whole  tone  is  vulgar.  Take  the  following  specimen  from 
Schlauraff  s  rhymed  description  of  a  journey  to  the  humanists  of  Germany,  and 
to  the  learned  printer  Wolfgang  Angst  in  Hagenau,  who  handled  him  very 
roughly : 

"  Et  ivi  hinc  ad  Hagenau  ;  bo  fararben  nrit  bit  ^ngtn  blao, 

Per  te  Wolfgange  Angst,  (Holt  gib,  bass  bn  {jangst, 

Quia  me  cum  baculo percusseras  in  oculo." 

1  Eleutherii  Byzeni  Triumphus  Doctoris  Reuchlini,  1518.  probably  printed  at 
Hagenau.  The  supposed  author  is  Ulrich  von  Hutten,  or  Busch,  probably  the 
former.  See  Strauss,  I.e.,  p.  155  sfj.  Geiger  gives  a  fac-simile  of  the  picture, 
p.  522  s?> 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

ERASMUS  AND  THE  GREEK  TESTAMENT. 

The  literature  on  Erasmus  and  his  relation  to  the  Reformation  see  in  Schaff's 
Church  History,  Vol.  VI.,  399  and  421  sqq. 

What  Reuchlin  did  for  Hebrew  learning,  Erasmus,  who 
was  twelve  years  younger,  accomplished  for  the  more  im- 
portant cause  of  Greek  learning.  He  established  the  Greek 
pronunciation  which  goes  by  his  name  ;  he  edited  and  trans- 
lated Greek  classics  and  Church  fathers,  and  made  them 
familiar  to  Northern  scholars ;  and  he  furnished  the  key  to 
the  critical  study  of  the  Greek  Testament,  the  Magna  Charta 
of  Christianity. 

Desiderius  Erasmus  of  Rotterdam  (1466-1536)  was  the 
prince  of  humanists  and  the  most  influential  and  useful 
scholar  of  his  age.  He  ruled  with  undisputed  sway  as  mon- 
arch of  the  realm  of  letters  in  the  sixteenth,  as  Petrarca  did 
in  the  fourteenth,  and  Voltaire  in  the  eighteenth  century.  He 
combined  brilliant  genius  with  classical  and  biblical  learning, 
keen  wit,  and  elegant  taste.  He  rarely  wrote  a  dull  line.  He 
travelled  extensively  in  the  Netherlands,  France,  England, 
Italy,  Germany,  and  settled  at  last  in  Switzerland,  where  he 
felt  most  at  home  with  his  publishers  and  congenial  scholars. 
He  was  a  genuine  cosmopolitan,  and  stood  in  correspondence 
with  scholars  of  all  countries,  who  consulted  him  as  an  oracle. 
His  books  had  the  popularity  and  circulation  of  modern 
novels,  especially  his  Praise  of  Folly  (1510),  and  his  Familiar 
Colloquies  (15 19).' 

Erasmus  stands  between  the  Middle  Ages  and  modern 
times,  and  belongs  as  much  to  the  history  of  Protestantism 
as  to  the  history  of  Catholicism,  yet  wholly  to  neither.  In 

1  See  an  account  of  his  works  in  Schaff's  Church  History,  Vol.  VI.,  415-421. 

128 


Erasmus  and  the  Greek  Testament.  129 

some  respects  he  anticipated  modern  rationalism.  He  re- 
sembles Laurentius  Valla,  his  forerunner  in  biblical  and  his- 
torical criticism.  He  was  a  leading  factor  in  the  emancipa- 
tion of  the  mind  of  Europe  from  the  bondage  of  ignorance 
and  superstition,  and  a  lifeless  formalism  in  religion. 

He  came  in  direct  contact  with  the  Reformation,  first  in  a 
friendly,  then  in  a  hostile  spirit.  "  He  laid  the  egg  which 
Luther  hatched  " ;  but  he  disowned  the  chicken.  He  desired 
a  reformation  by  gradual  education  and  gentle  persuasion 
within  the  old  Church ;  but  he  disapproved  of  the  violent 
measures  of  Luther  and  Zwingli,  and  feared  that  they  would 
do  much  harm  to  the  cause  of  learning  and  refined  culture, 
which  he  had  more  at  heart  than  religion.  He  never  in- 
tended to  separate  from  Rome  any  more  than  his  English 
friends  John  Colet  and  Thomas  More.  He  thought  it 
better  to  endure  corruption  than  to  run  the  risk  of  schism 
and  rebellion.  He  believed  in  gentle  medicine,  but  shrank 
from  the  operations  of  surgery. 

Erasmus  lived  in  scholarly  simplicity,  observed  a  strict 
diet,  and  carefully  nursed  his  frail  body ;  but  suffered  never- 
theless much  from  the  stone  and  gout.  His  moral  character 
was  above  reproach,  but  he  lacked  courage,  freely  indulged 
in  cutting  satire,  was  morbidly  sensitive  and  vain,  and  spoiled 
by  flattery.  He  was  ordained  to  the  priesthood,  and  re- 
mained unmarried,  but  had  no  parish  or  public  office,  and 
preferred  independence.  He  was  offered  a  cardinal's  hat, 
but  declined  it.  He  lived  on  the  income  from  his  books, 
which  in  those  days  was  very  small,  and  on  presents  and  ir- 
regular pensions  from  patrons  to  whom  he  had  dedicated  his 
works.  Since  1516  he  had  the  title  of  counsellor  of  King 
Charles  of  Spain,  with  an  annuity  of  four  hundred  guilders. 
He  died  without  priest  or  sacrament,  but  invoking  the 
mercy  of  Jesus,  and  was  buried  in  the  Protestant  cathedral 
of  Basel.  He  bequeathed  his  property  of  seven  thousand 
ducats,  precious  gifts,  and  books  to  Professor  Bomfacms 
Amerbach  and  other  literary  friends.1 

'  His  will  is  preserved  in  the  University  Library  of  Basel,  and  has  been  pub- 
lished by  Dr.  Sieber,  the  librarian  (Da*  Testament  des  Erasmus  vom  *,  Jan 
9 


130  The  Renaissance. 

Erasmus  was  essentially  a  scholar  and  an  illuminator 
within  the  Catholic  Church.  In  this  character  his  services 
were  invaluable.  He  was  a  man  of  thought,  not  of  action. 
The  library  was  his  sanctuary.  He  was  ambitious  of  praise, 
but  not  of  wealth  or  rank.  He  would  rather  work  for  a 
month  at  expounding  St.  Paul,  he  said,  than  waste  a  day  in 
quarrelling.  He  loved  the  comfort  of  his  quiet  study  and 
the  company  of  his  books  above  all  the  pleasures  and  treas- 
ures of  the  world.  He  promoted  classical,  patristic,  and 
biblical  studies,  and  made  them  serviceable  to  a  revival  of 
Christian  life. 

His  most  important  and  useful  work  was  the  publication 
of  the  Greek  Testament.  The  first  edition  appeared  in  1516 
at  Basel,  just  one  year  before  the  publication  of  the  Ninety- 
Five  Theses  of  Luther  at  Wittenberg.  It  contains  the  Greek 
text  in  one  column  and  his  own  Latin  version  in  the  other  (224 
folio  pages),  and  his  suggestive  Annotations  (672  pages  in  all).1 
It  was  hurried  through  the  press  in  order  to  anticipate  the 
publication  of  the  New  Testament  of  the  Complutensian  Poly- 
glot, which  was  actually  printed  in  1514,  but  did  not  appear 
till  1520  after  receiving  the  papal  imprimatur.  Erasmus  did 
not  even  take  the  trouble  of  copying  the  codices,  but  sent 
them,  with  numerous  marginal  corrections,  to  the  printer.* 

1527);  together  with  the  Inventarium  iiber  die  Hinterlassenscha.fi  des  Erasmus 
vom  22  jfuli,  1536  (Basel,  1889).  The  inventory  contains  a  list  of  his  furniture, 
wardrobe,  napkins,  nightcaps,  cushions,  goblets,  silver  vessels,  gold  rings,  and 
money  (722  gold  guilders,  900  gold  crowns,  etc.).  His  library  is  conditionally 
offered  to  "  Herr  von  Lasko,"  the  nobleman  and  Reformer  of  Poland,  for  200 
guilders  f" soverr  er  die  ivill  haben" ).  Erasmus  left  three  wills,  1527,  1535, 
and  1536  ;  the  last  is  dated  five  months  before  his  death  and  superseded  the 
others.  In  the  will  of  1527  he  had  made  provision  for  a  complete  edition  of  his 
works  by  Froben  and  directed  that  1500  copies  be  printed,  and  that  twenty,  as 
' '  author's  copies, "  be  sent  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the  Bishops  of 
London,  Lincoln,  and  Rochester,  Sir  Thomas  More,  and  other  friends. 

1  See  a  fac-simile  of  the  first  and  last  pages  in  Schaff's  Companion  to  the  Greek 
Testament,  third  edition  (1888),  pp.  532  and  533. 

1 "  Prcecipitatum  fuit  verius  quam  editum,"  says  Erasmus  himself  in  the 
Preface.  The  second  edition  also  contains  several  pages  of  errors,  some  of 
which  have  affected  Luther's  version.  The  third  edition  first  inserts  the 
spurious  passage  of  the  three  heavenly  witnesses  (i  John  5  :  7)  from  the  Codex 
Montforiianus  of  the  sixteenth  century. 


Erasmus  and  the  Greek  Testament.  131 

He  used  for  the  first  edition  three  manuscripts  of  the 
twelfth  century,  which  are  still  preserved  in  the  University 
Library  of  Basel,  and  retain  the  marginal  notes  of  Erasmus 
and  the  red  lines  of  the  printer  to  indicate  the  corresponding 
pages  of  the  printed  edition.  The  first  manuscript  contains 
the  four  Gospels,1  the  second  the  Acts  and  Epistles.'  The 
manuscript  of  the  Apocalypse  was  borrowed  from  Reuchlin, 
and  disappeared,  but  was  rediscovered,  in  1861,  by  Dr. 
Delitzsch  in  the  library  of  (Ettingen-Wallerstein  at  May- 
hingen,  Bavaria.3  It  was  defective  on  the  last  leaf,  and 
supplemented  by  Erasmus,  who  translated  the  last  six  verses 
from  the  Latin  Vulgate  into  indifferent  Greek,  for  he  was  a 
better  Latinist  than  Hellenist.  Erasmus  might  have  used 
an  older  and  better  MS.  of  the  Gospels,  an  uncial  of  the 
eighth  century,  called  E  (Basileensis),  which  belonged  to 
the  Ordo  Praedicatorum,  and  was  transferred  to  the  Uni- 
versity Library  in  1559,  but  either  was  not  known  as  to  its 
value,  or  could  not  be  secured  for  the  purpose  from  the 
Dominicans.4 

Erasmus  had  a  religious  and  practical  as  well  as  philologi- 
cal and  critical  interest  in  this  edition  of  the  New  Testament 
in  its  original  language.  He  expressed  in  the  Preface  the 
wish  that  the  theologians  might  study  Christianity  from  its 
fountain-head,  and  that  the  Scriptures  might  be  translated 
into  every  tongue  and  put  into  the  hands  of  every  reader,  to 
give  strength  and  comfort  to  the  husbandman  at  his  plough, 
to  the  weaver  at  his  shuttle,  to  the  traveller  on  his  journey. 

1  Marked  "  Quatuor  Evangelic  Grace,  Sec.  XII.  Cod.  Praedicatorum  (Grace. 

7)-" 

s  Marked  "  Acta  el  Epistolcz  Catholics  et  Paulina,  Sec.  XII.  Codex  Amer- 
bach  (Greece  9)."  These  two  codices  were  rebound,  and,  in  the  process,  some 
marginal  corrections  were  cut  off. 

'See  Franz  Delitzsch,  Handschriftliche  Funde,  Heft.  I.  Die  Entstellungen 
des  Textes  des  Apokalypse,  nachgewiesen  aus  dem  verhren  geglaubten  Codex 
Rettchlins.  Leipzig,  1861. 

4  The  last  is  the  conjecture  of  the  present  librarian,  Dr.  Sieber,  who  kindly 
showed  me  again  all  three  MSS.  on  my  last  visit  to  Basel  in  July,  1890. 
Codex  Basileensis  was  compared  by  Mill,  Wetstein,  Tischendorf  (1843),  MUller, 
Tregelles  (1846),  and  Gregory  (1882).     See  Gregory's  Prolegomena  N.  T.  Gr., 
I.,  372  sqq. 


132  The  Renaissance. 

His  notes  and  paraphrases  on  the  New  Testament  (except 
the  Apocalypse)  were  translated  into  English,  and  a  copy 
given  to  every  parish. 

Zwingli,  an  enthusiastic  admirer  of  Erasmus,  copied  the 
Pauline  Epistles  from  the  first  Greek  edition  with  his  own 
hand  in  the  convent  at  Einsiedeln,  in  1 5 16.  From  the  second 
edition  of  1519,  Luther  prepared  his  German  translation  in 
the  Wartburg,  1522,  and  Tyndale  his  English  version,  1525.' 

Thus  the  New  Testament  in  the  vernacular  became  the 
chief  promoter  of  the  Reformation  in  Germany,  Switzerland, 
and  Great  Britain. 

1  Erasmus  published  in  all  five  editions  of  the  Greek  Testament — 1516,  1519, 
1522,  1527,  and  1535.  Besides,  more  than  thirty  unauthorized  reprints  ap- 
peared in  Venice,  Strassburg,  Basel,  Paris,  etc.  He  made  several  improvements, 
but  his  entire  apparatus  never  exceeded  eight  MSS.  The  fourth  and  the  fifth 
editions  are  the  basis  of  the  textus  receptus,  which  ruled  supreme  till  the  time  of 
Lachmann  and  Tregelles.  See  Schaff,  I.e.,  p.  231  sg. 


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